Rick Perry Pleads Not Guilty to Felony Charges
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Stewart F. House/Getty Images(AUSTIN, Texas) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to two felony charges on which he was indicted relating to a 2013 veto threat.
Perry’s attorneys entered the not guilty plea Wednesday morning and waived his formal arraignment scheduled for Friday morning.
“The waiver of arraignment contains the plea of not guilty,” David Botsford, an attorney for Perry, said.
Perry turned himself in to authorities Tuesday at the Travis County Courthouse, getting his fingerprints taken and smiling for a mug shot.
The two felony counts — abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public official — originate from Perry’s threat to veto $7.5 million in funding for Texas’ public integrity unit after District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg refused to resign following a 2013 DWI conviction.
Perry will travel to Washington, D.C., Thursday for a speech on the border crisis before heading to New Hampshire, where he has events scheduled for Friday and Saturday.
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