Pirro: Indictment of Rick Perry 'Is Pure Unadulterated Hogwash'

On Saturday’s “Justice with Judge Jeanine” in her “Opening Statement” segment, host Jeanine Pirro slammed the indictment of Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) by a grand jury empaneled by Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, who Pirro described as a “drunk.”

“A famous court of appeals judge once said a grand jury could indict a ham sandwich. Now, I believe in the rule of law, but I’m not going to sugar coat this one. The indictment of Texas Gov. Rick Perry for abuse of his veto power and coercion of a public servant is pure unadulterated hogwash. It makes DAs like me cringe in embarrassment. And it’s not just me. Even former Obama White House political adviser David Axelrod calls the indictment, quote, ‘pretty sketchy.’ Now, I spent my career in the assignment of blame. More than three decades as a prosecutor, prosecutor, and a superior court judge an elected district attorney. I have impanelled grand jury, instructed grand juries and ruled on grand jury actions. Nothing about this indictment makes sense. A sitting governor facing 109 years in prison because he threatened to veto funding to a drunk district attorney’s public integrity unit? Really? No one disputes that the law gives the governor the power to veto funding. Period, end of the story. So now every time a governor vetoes funding or legislation, will he or she be subject to an investigation? Or an indictment because people complained it was political?

Pirro went on to point out that this was the norm for this particular’s district office, which is one of the few Democratic counties within a very Republican Texas and it has tried this with former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX).

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor