The abuse-of-power case against former Texas governor, Rick Perry, has been dismissed by the highest criminal court in Texas.
In the ruling released by Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the one last charge against Rick Perry was dismissed, as well as a lower charge by a lower criminal court. In 2014, a grand jury in Travis County indicted Perry with abuse of power while sitting in his office in 2013. The charge came after Perry pressured Austin's district attorney to resign by threatening to abolish state financing to the anticorruption unit in the attorney's office.
Perry became the first Texas governor, or head of state, in almost 100 years to face criminal charges, The New York Times reports.
Tony Buzbee, Perry's lawyer from Houston, referred to the ruling "a long time coming." Perry's indictment happened in August 2015, and was ordered as dismissed by the court on Wednesday.
The former governor spoke to reporters in Austin, saying that the charges against him were "nothing less than a baseless political attack." Perry let out a poised demeanor during a news conference and mentioned that the charges injected a negative hue to his bid.
"Obviously this indictment, as it would anybody, had a negative effect on our candidacy," said Perry during the news conference.
Additionally, Perry stated that prosecutors merely use the court to influence the results of the elections.
"I think the people of this state do not want rogue prosecutors to use the court to get done what they can't get done at the ballot box," said Perry, as reported by CNN.
Since the charges were announced, Perry, along with his lawyers, have always maintained their innocence and have always denied any wrongdoing. Perry said that his public threat to cut off state financing were "lawful." Since Perry left office in January 2015, the charges did nothing to help his efforts to attract donors for his campaign as Republican president.
