The second charge, which has since been ruled unconstitutional,[4] was coercion of a public servant, a third-degree felony,[5] for seeking the resignation of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat,[6] after she was convicted of drunk driving and incarcerated.

[2][8] According to the complaint from Texans for Public Justice that led to the indictment, at the time of the veto, prosecutors in the Texas Public Integrity Unit had been investigating a state agency called the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, described by The New York Times as "one of Perry’s signature initiatives [that] came under scrutiny by state lawmakers after accusations of mismanagement and corruption.

[15] Jay Root of the Texas Tribune said "Lehmberg and other Travis County officials recused themselves from the case and are not prosecuting it" noting that the prosecutor was appointed by Bert Richardson, a "Republican judge".

[5] Major newspapers including The New York Times ("appears to be the product of an overzealous prosecution"), The Los Angeles Times ("the courts are the wrong place to settle political scores"), The Washington Post ("The grand jury, however, would criminalize Mr. Perry’s conduct by twisting the pertinent statutes into a pair of pretzels"), and USA Today ("Politics as usual should not be a violation of criminal law") criticized the indictment.

[26] Other news reports, however, have highlighted the fact that that additional district attorneys in Texas, who were Republican, had also been charged with DUI's during his governorship and against whom Perry took no similar action as he directed against the Democrat, Lehmberg, of Travis county.

[27][28] A spokesman for Rick Perry said, however, "They were not in charge of the Public Integrity Unit, which receives state taxpayer dollars...we don’t have any evidence that they behaved as inappropriately and abusively to law enforcement as Lehmberg did.

"[27] On August 19, 2014, Perry arrived at the Travis County jail where he was processed, photographed for his mug shot, finger printed, and released.

[32] Perry hired former Clinton White House special counsel Mark Fabiani, GOP attorney Bobby Burchfield, defense lawyer David Botsford, Republican lawyer Ben Ginsberg, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Tom Phillips, and former McCain/Palin consultant Steve Schmidt to help him with legal issues and strategy around the indictment.

[33][34] On September 8, 2014, in the second motion to dismiss the charges brought against the governor, lawyers for Perry referenced French King Louis XIV.

[38] On February 13, 2015, special prosecutors Mike McCrum and David Gonzalez, amended the indictment to fill out their argument that Perry's action was illegal.

[39] In a survey conducted by Public Policy Polling (PPP) in Iowa a week after the indictment, Perry’s net favorability rating among Republicans went up 7 percentage points.

[4] The more serious indictment for abuse of power remained against Perry, carrying a potential prison sentence of five to 99 years,[4][43] and was later dismissed in February 2016 by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.