Texas Governor Rick Perry plans to turn himself in to authorities for fingerprinting and a mug shot on Tuesday after he was indicted by a jury in the state last week on two felony charges of abusing power, local news reports said, according to The Associated Press.
Perry plans to make statements upon entering the Travis County Courthouse at 5 p.m. Tuesday after being indicted Friday on two felony counts of coercion and official oppression for promising to veto $7.5 million for the state public integrity unit run by the Travis County district attorney's office, the AP reported.
The indictment has cast a shadow over Perry's possible bid for the Republican presidential nomination, with experts predicting that legal wrangling in the case is likely to stretch into the 2016 election cycle, according to the AP.
Perry was indicted on Friday by a grand jury in Travis County, a Democratic stronghold in the heavily Republican state, over his veto of funding for a state ethics watchdog that has investigated prominent Texas Republicans, the AP reported.
He has called the indictment politically motivated and pledged to fight the charges, according to the AP.
Perry became the target of an ethics probe last year after he vetoed $7.5 million in funding for the state public integrity unit run from the Travis County district attorney's office, the AP reported.
Democrats have said Perry may have been looking to put an ally in charge of the unit, extending what they say is cronyism in his administration, according to the AP. The more serious of the two felony charges carries a prison sentence of five to 99 years.
Perry's lead attorney took on BP after the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the AP reported. Another of his attorneys argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and won changes to campaign finance laws. Joining them is George W. Bush's former lawyer during the Florida recount that decided the 2000 presidential election.
