Texas Gov. Rick Perry Indicted on Coercion Allegations

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a potential Republican candidate for president in 2016, was indicted Friday in an investigation into an effort to force a local official out of office. A grand jury in Austin handed up the indictment in a long-running investigation of Perry's threat to veto state funding to the Travis County Public Integrity Unit unless District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg resigned.

The threat came after Lehmberg pleaded guilty to drunken driving and served a 45-day sentence last year, NBC station KXAN of Austin reported. Perry called on her to step down, but she refused; Perry then vetoed the funding. The grand jury issued indictments (PDF) Friday on charges of abuse of official capacity and coercion of public servant, both of them felonies.

"The veto in question was made in accordance with the veto authority afforded to every governor under the Texas Constitution," Perry's general counsel, Mary Anne Wiley, said in a statement. "We will continue to aggressively defend the governor's lawful and constitutional action, and believe we will ultimately prevail."

In an on-camera interview in May, Texas Gov. Rick Perry told NBC News he did not regret vetoing the funds for the public integrity office in Travis County, for which he has now been indicted. He also said neither he nor anyone in his office committed a crime.