An Affidavit About Nothing

In yet another attempt to distract from the real issue, Gov. Perry’s high-priced legal team released an affidavit from Chris Walling, a former investigator for the Public Integrity Unit (PIU).

But the affidavit is entirely irrelevant, because it doesn't address any actual claims. Suspiciously absent are references to actual claims about the Public Integrity Unit's investigation into Rick Perry's donors that received $11 million from the Cancer Research Fund - an investigation that has already produced a whole other felony indictment

In the affidavit, Walling swears that “at no time (during) CPRIT (the Cancer Prevent Research Institute of Texas) investigation was Governor Rick Perry or anyone from the Governor’s office a target.” 

What an affidavit says today has little bearing on what the Governor may or may not have been thinking a year ago. Furthermore, it’s public knowledge that Rick Perry was not under investigation. So reiterating such facts in an affidavit is about as useful as reminding us that the sky is blue.

Put simply, this is an affidavit about nothing.

A reminder about the real issues in the case:

  • Rick Perry attempted to coerce the resignation of the Travis County District Attorney who was overseeing an investigation into his signature project, the Cancer Research Fund of Texas.
     
  • A top level executive of the Cancer Research Fund was under investigation.
     
  • The PIU was investigating a very large grant-- a grant which was not properly reviewed and resulted in the resignation of eight scientists working for the Cancer Research Fund -- allotted by the aforementioned executive to major donors of Perry and Abbott.
     
  • Both Rick Perry and Greg Abbott were responsible for oversight of the Cancer Research Fund and turned a blind eye to acts of negligence.
     
  • Had Perry been successfull in coercing the Travis County D.A. to resign, he would have been solely and conveniently responsible for naming her successor.