Texas Gov. Rick Perry, calling his indictment politically motivated, vowed Saturday to fight charges he abused his power by trying to pressure a district attorney to resign. 

"This farce of a prosecution will be revealed for what it is, and those responsible will be held accountable," Perry said at a news conference in Austin, the capital. 

A grand jury in Travis County indicted Perry, a Republican, on two felony counts stemming from his threat to veto funding for a statewide public integrity unit run by Travis Country District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat, unless she stepped down, according to the special prosecutor in the case, Michael McCrum. 

The case centers on Perry's June 2013 veto of the $7.5 million budget for the unit run by Lehmberg, after she refused his demand to resign following her drunken driving arrest and conviction. 

Perry faces accusations of coercion of a public servant and abuse of his official capacity in connection with the threat and veto. 

Right to veto? 

According to McCrum, the indictment alleges that the circumstances around Perry's veto threat amounted to a misuse of state money earmarked by the Legislature to fund the public integrity unit in Travis County run by Lehmberg. 

The second charge alleges that he improperly used the veto threat to get her to resign following her arrest on a drunk driving charge. She stayed in office. 

But the governor said under the state constitution he has the discretionary right to veto items in the state budget. 

"I exercised this discretion," he said. 
When did the case center around Perry's veto?
The case centers on Perry's June 2013 veto