Prominent Political Figure Calls Rick Perry Indictment 'Pretty Sketchy' — But His Identity Might Blow Your Mind

On the same day Texas Gov. Rick Perry launched a pointed counterattack over his grand jury indictment on abuse of power charges, a prominent political figure stood up for the embattled Republican.

It's fair to say, however, that he's not an ally anyone expected.

David Axelrod, a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, tweeted the following on Saturday morning: "Unless he was demonstrably trying to scrap the ethics unit for other than his stated reason, Perry indictment seems pretty sketchy."

Axelrod's tweet drew a number of surprised responses:

Ben White, chief economic correspondent and Morning Money columnist for Politico, called the indictment "quite perverse."

Perry himself characterized his indictment as “a farce of a prosecution” during his Saturday statement to the media and that it would be “revealed for what it is” and that those responsible would be held accountable.

Perry is the first Texas governor since 1917 to be indicted.

The indictments are related to Perry vetoing funding for a Travis County unit investigating public corruption last year because the Democratic official heading the office refused to resign after being convicted of drunken driving. The investigative unit is based in Austin, a heavily Democratic city where the grand jury was seated. The rest of Texas is heavily Republican.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

(H/T: Breitbart, Drudge Report)