undergone the proper review. so the district attorney s office was looking into that at the time that governor perry made the veto threat and there were some people who suggested that at least there was implication that if she were removed that this investigation proving embarrassing to the governor might not go forward. as it happened, the investigation did go forward. there was an indictment in december of the agency s chief commercialization officer. the investigation is concluded. they don t expect any other indictments out of this. the prosecution in that case will be going forward. the agency in the meantime has been revamped by the legislature. let me ask the national politics of this. rick perry is clearly interested in running for president again. i have no idea why, but he s clearly interested in taking another stab at it. play this out. we have sort of gone over that the complexities here on the one
list. i m not sure o malley gets that vote. but they want to see a contrast. the elizabeth warren contrast is more profound. we have to jump out, but it s staggering. a sitting vice president running 55 points behind. that i have never seen. good news for democrats this week where you would least expect to find it. details on that coming up next. plus connecting the dots in the chris christie investigation. closer to all the key players and almost anyone else, stay with us. afghanistan, in 2009. orbiting the moon in 1971. [ male announcer ] once it s earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection. and because usaa s commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa.
so peggy, i want to pick it back up with you. we were setting this up about the unique power of the prosecutors office. and sort of the watchdog for the entire state government. this district attorney who rick perry is trying to kbet to resign, she was engaged in an investigation into cancer research institute that was proving embarrassing to republicans. tell us about that investigation. yes, that s correct. the cancer research institute was set up to do research and be an incubator for agencies that are entities looking for cancer cures and spinning businesses off. it was a big achievement for governor perry to create this. as it got going, there were concerns raised and investigations done that showed the grants being awarded had not
he was first to report the news this week that governor perry hired a defense lawyer to represent him in the criminal investigation. also in texas we have peggy fekak from a reporter of the houston chronicle. tony, i ll start with you because you have spoken recently with this special prosecutor. and i think just looking at this from afar, this was a story we saw a little bit about this last summer. we all forgot about it and there was surprise nationally that it seems to be picking up steam in terms of the investigation. the comments that you got from this special prosecutor suggests he really is honing in on perry. i think what s going on nationally was also happening locally. we weren t hearing a lot about this investigation. it was getting scant attention. and then i started hearing several weeks ago that officials were getting ready to convene a special grand jury and this prosecutor was going to take
investigating the cancer prevention and research institute of texas, which was giving out a lot of money to rick perry friends. so it s not just that he was trying to maybe unseat someone who there s a case she was driving drunk and get someone who is his friend of his in the office, but maybe he was trying to impede an investigation of his own administration. that s sort of the bigger issue here is was he trying to cover up something that travis county d.a. s office was on to. peggy, we have to squeeze a break in. but i m going to ask you about that because that s one of the central questions here is as sam is saying, the cancer research institute giving out money to a lot of rick perry s associates and money that people say was misappropriated. that s something this office was looking into it. we ll ask about that when we come back.