USA: Potential Republican presidential candidate indicted on felony charges

, Aug 16: Texas Governor Rick Perry, a potential 2016

presidential candidate, has been indicted over an effort to force a local Democratic prosecutor to resign.

A grand jury in Austin indicted Perry yesterday on two felony charges -- abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant for his threat to veto USD 7.5 million in state funding to the Public Integrity Unit run by the office of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg.

With the indictment, Perry became the first Texas governor in nearly a century to face criminal charges and faced a major roadblock to his presidential ambitions.

Perry became the 1st Texas governor in nearly a century to face criminal charges

Perry has already announced that he is not seeking re-election and will leave office in January. He is also considering a second run for president and has been travelling across the country and abroad off late to raise his political profile and to prove that he has fully recovered from his unsuccessful 2012 campaign,

PTI