Governor Rick Perry to Deliver Statement
WHITFIELD: Texas Governor Rick Perry is in big legal trouble. A grand jury has indicted him on two felony charges. He's accused of abusing the power of his office and coercing a public servant. Special prosecutor says Perry tried to force a district attorney to resign. The governor is expected to speak at the state capitol in Austin today, 3:00 Eastern Time. But his lawyer is already speaking out. Nick Valencia is here now. So, Nick, this is a pretty significant deal. The governor will be booked. There will be a mug shot, fingerprinting, all of that.</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he is the longest running governor in Texas history and there hasn't been a governor indicted since the early 1900s. So this is a very big deal. Just imagine if you were applying for a job and you had an indictment attached to you. This all stems over an alleged threat that he made towards a Democratic district attorney in Travis County, Rosemary Lindbergh. Rosemary Lindbergh was busted for a dui in April 2013. Governor Perry asked Lindbergh to step down, but she didn't and he allegedly followed through with this threat to withhold upwards of about $7 million from a unit that she was running, Public Integrity Unit. Now the special prosecutor says the charges, as we mentioned, Fred, coercion of a public servant and abuse of power and here's the interesting thing because he is indicted, KDUE, our CNN affiliate in Austin, Texas says that he is going to be booked, fingerprinted and he is going to take a mug shot just like everyone else would have to go through. Now his lawyers, the defense counsel for Governor Perry, they're saying this is pure politics. I want to read a statement here that they said to CNN. We will continue to aggressively defend the governor's lawful and constitutional action and believe we will ultimately prevail. So, the defense counsel for Governor Perry saying that this is just all politics. They don't believe it has any foundation whatsoever.</s>WHITFIELD: It is interesting that 3:00 Eastern Time, the governor will for the first time address this himself, stepping before the cameras there. How much of this is in large part because of his potential run for presidency that he would come out so quickly as opposed to allowing a few days to pass?</s>VALENCIA: It's a good move on his part at least in PR sense to come out so quickly and kind of trying to admit this in the bud here very quickly. That question may be best suited for some political analyst. They may have a better insights to how much this is going to affect his presidential bid. But you know, really coming off his 2012 bid where he had that very public gaffe, he wasn't able to name federal agencies. He started off as a front-runner, quickly lost that head steam that he had going into the race. Something like this, you know, it doesn't look good. It's a ways away though. Maybe he can do an about face, do some PR. Again, he is aggressively according to his defense counsel, going after these charges, trying to get them dropped. So we'll have to see how this develops and what he says at 3:00 p.m. -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: Absolutely. Now, remember, this grand jury has indicted him. Feels like the case is there to move forward with an indictment, but it doesn't mean he's been convicted.</s>VALENCIA: That's right.</s>WHITFIELD: You know, this is still very early in the stages of the legal road, however, it will be important to hear what the governor has to say today at 3:00. Of course, we're going to carry that live.</s>VALENCIA: We'll be watching.</s>WHITFIELD: Nick, appreciate it. Thanks so much. All right, meantime, protests are happening today across the nation over that shooting death of the unarmed black teen in Missouri. Our Victor Blackwell is in Ferguson, Missouri, where riots and looting happened just hours ago. Victor, a lot is scheduled to take place today as well with the governor saying he's going to Ferguson, Missouri.</s>VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Fred, Jay Nixon will be here today. A vigil scheduled for 30 minutes from now, but overnight, three stores looted, one person shot. An officer injured and again, those Molotov cocktails and a return to the military style response from law enforcement. Going to show it to you and show you a confrontation between the protesters and the man expected to calm things down here. Stay with us.