Thread: Texas Gov. Perry indicted for coercion for veto threat

Gov. Rick Perry: To deter grousing, state won't pay legal fees

BETSY BLANEY, Associated Press
POSTED: 08/26/2014 01:21:20 PM MDT


Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks to the media Tuesday Aug. 26, 2014, following the ground breaking ceremony for OXY Midland Office Complex in Midland, Texas. Perry says campaign funds and not taxpayers will start picking up his legal tab after “having folks grouse about it.” Perry told reporters Tuesday in Midland that he had considered it appropriate for state funds to pay his legal fees because a criminal investigation dealt with his official duties as governor. (AP Photo/Midland Reporter-Telegram, Tim Fischer)



MIDLAND, Texas (AP) - Indicted Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he believes taxpayers should have picked up his legal tab but opted to use campaign funds "to keep from having folks grouse about it."
The possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate told reporters Tuesday in Midland that he had considered it appropriate for state funds to pay his legal fees because a criminal investigation dealt with his official duties as governor.
Perry has pleaded not guilty to two felony charges o f abuse of power. At least $80,000 in taxpayer dollars have been spent on his defense so far.
Following questions over who would pay for a new team of high-powered attorneys, Perry announced last week that campaign funds would start footing the bill.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/latestnews/ci_26409279/gov-rick-perry-deter-grousing-state-wont-pay

Why Rick Perry can't carry a concealed weapon in Texas


Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a facing felony indictment which means under state law he cannot carry a conceal firearm, buy a new gun or ammunition.

By Jim Forsyth, Reuters AUGUST 27, 2014

• (

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — A felony indictment for abuse of power will hitTexas Governor Rick Perry, an avowed gun enthusiast, where it hurts - by curtailing some of his rights to bear firearms.

Perry, a possible candidate in the 2016 Republican presidential race, has sought the spotlight since his indictment earlier this month, holding news conferences to denounce the charges as politically motivated and turning his booking into a campaign-style event where he spoke to cheering supporters.

Under state law, Perry, a staunch supporter of gun rights who said he shot a coyote to death with a pistol while jogging in Austin in 2010, is no longer allowed a license to carry a concealed handgun because of the indictment.

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Someone whose license is revoked can appeal or reapply two years after the date of revocation.


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Perry has entered a not guilty plea to charges of abuse of official capacity, a first-degree felony, and coercion of a public official, a third-degree felony, handed down by a state grand jury last week. He faces up to 99 years in jail if convicted of the first-degree felony.

The longest-serving governor in the state's history, Perry became the target of an ethics investigation last year after he vetoed $7.5 million in funding for the state public integrity unit run from the Travis County district attorney's office.

His veto was widely viewed as intended to force the resignation of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat, after she had pleaded guilty to drunken driving.

Edwin Walker, a gun rights attorney in Houston, said if someone is indicted for a felony the state will suspend his or her concealed handgun license during the indictment period. Texas does not generally allow for the open carrying of handguns in public.

But a suspension would not prevent the governor from carrying a handgun while at home.

"He is allowed to have a concealed handgun wherever anybody is allowed to have one," Walker said. "That is on property that they own or property that they control."

At work, Perry is protected by an armed security detail.

Perry has been photographed firing weapons and posted a video called "What to do on a Day Off" that shows him shooting weapons at an Austin gun range. He has told reporters he owns several guns, including family heirlooms and historic handguns.

Under federal law, he is prohibited from buying guns and ammunition while under indictment for a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.

"What he has he can use, but he can no longer purchase new stuff because of this felony charge," said Josh Felker, who runs Lone Star Handgun, a shooting range near San Antonio.

Perry has waived his right to appear at an arraignment in Austin this past Friday.

Under state law, Perry can keep his handguns, including the Ruger .380 he said he used to kill the coyote.

In 2012, after the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, Perry indicated that he supported allowing teachers and administrators to carry concealed handguns.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politic...eapon-in-Texas

Texas Gov. Perry ordered to be in court Halloween

By Associated Press October 13 at 1:17 PM

AUSTIN, Texas — Indicted Texas Gov. Rick Perry will make his first court appearance on Halloween as his defense team tries to quash the two felony counts of abuse of power against him on both constitutional and technical grounds.

The Republican was on a state economic mission to Europe and was granted permission to skip a pretrial hearing Monday in Austin, where state District Judge Bert Richardson set the next court date.

“Because this affects the case, the judge has ruled that he, like other defendants, needs to appear in court,” special prosecutor Michael McCrum said of Perry after the hearing. The governor, meanwhile, is set to address the Royal United Services Institute in London on Tuesday.

During the upcoming court appearance, Perry’s attorneys will argue that McCrum was never properly sworn in, and also that he should produce transcripts of secret grand jury testimony for the judge to review. McCrum joked with reporters that the governor’s legal team is throwing the kitchen sink at him.

“There’s been a couple of dishes thrown into the sink, and so we’re having to go through them one by one,” he said. “But I’m confident everything’s going to proceed in a good fashion.”

Also Monday, the judge set a Nov. 7 deadline for McCrum to file written responses to the defense’s two motions to quash.

Perry was indicted in August by an Austin grand jury after publicly threatening — and then carrying out — a veto of state funding for public corruption prosecutors. He promised the veto after the Democratic district attorney who oversees the investigative unit, Rosemary Lehmberg, refused to resign following her conviction for drunken driving.

The defense has since filed two motions, one arguing that the case is unconstitutional because Perry was within his rights to issue the veto, and the other seeking to throw it out on technicalities, including whether McCrum was properly sworn in and if Lehmberg filed appropriate paperwork to recuse herself from the case.

Richardson, a San Antonio Republican, appointed McCrum special prosecutor. The case against Perry grew out of a complaint from a left-leaning government watchdog group in Austin, but Lehmberg’s office hasn’t been involved in investigating it.

McCrum says he was properly sworn in and that he and Lehmberg filed the necessary paperwork.

In brief comments after Monday’s hearing, Tony Buzbee, a Houston-based attorney for Perry, responded “I’ve seen some paperwork, I’m not sure it resolves the issue.”

On the grand jury transcripts, Perry’s attorneys want Richardson to review them, saying they are necessary for him to rule on their requests to dismiss the indictments. They’ve argued that McCrum has said he’s too busy to call the grand jury court reporter to order the transcripts.

McCrum said asking for grand jury transcripts was “quite unusual” and that he wants to protect grand jurors and witnesses they heard.
“But that’s fine,” McCrum said. “We’re not here to hide anything, we just want to follow procedures and law.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...88d_story.html

Rick Perry tangled in politics

• By Tre’ Goins-Phillips
• Published: August 26th, 2014

Texas governor charged on two felony counts of coercion, abuse of power

Gov. Rick Perry was indicted Friday, Aug. 15, on charges of coercion and abuse of official capacity. If the governor is convicted of the latter, he could face a total of 99 years in prison. The major problem with the charges — they are hardly legitimate.

POLITICIZED — Governor’s indictment catapulted Texas political scene into the national news cycle, calling Perry’s leadership into question. Photo credit: Google Images

Perry was indicted by the Travis County grand jury for vetoing state funds to the area’s District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg in 2013. Perry vetoed funding to the Travis County prosecutor after her arrest and conviction for drunken driving and subsequent refusal to step down.
According to news reports, Lehmberg was arrested alone in her vehicle, accompanied by an open bottle of vodka, after a 911-call warning of her reckless driving. The district attorney had a blood-alcohol level three times above the legal limit. Upon arriving at the police department, Lehmberg was so erratic and violent that she had to be physically restrained.
As the investigation moved forward, a serious drinking problem was uncovered. In one year alone, Lehmberg purchased 72 bottles of vodka from just one store, “PolitiFact” confirmed.
Needless to say, Perry lost confidence in her ability to lead and made good on his promise to block her funding, should she refuse to step down.
Perry is responsible for the well-being of the state of Texas, and he was doing what he thought to be right. By electing him governor, the citizens of Texas gave Perry the responsibility to exercise his judgment as he sees fit.
However, the legitimacy of his actions is not the primary concern here. This is all about destruction of character. Perry asked a reckless democratic prosecutor — under his leadership — to resign. Now, the political left is reacting in the same reckless way as Lehmberg.
“Gov. Perry used appropriate tools under the Texas Constitution to urge Lehmberg to do the right thing using line item veto power to defund the Public Integrity Unit until it could actually serve the public with integrity, under a leader who had integrity,” Gov. Sarah Palin said.
Perry even offered to give the position to the next Democrat in line, Lehmberg’s right-hand man. He just wanted this unfit district attorney removed, and, according to one major Obama confidant, the governor was not out of line.
“Unless he was demonstrably trying to scrap the ethics unit for other than his stated reason, Perry indictment seems pretty sketchy,” David Axelrod, former adviser to President Obama, tweeted.
Even Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz — no fan of the governor — voiced his disapproval of the indictment.
“The idea of indicting him because he threatened to veto spending unless a district attorney who was caught drinking and driving resigned, that’s not anything for a criminal indictment,” Dershowitz told “Newsmax.” “That’s a political issue.”
Needless to say, progressive voices like that are few and far between. The left and their advocates in the media are hoping the general public will do nothing more than read the breaking news notification on their smartphones: “Texas Governor Perry Indicted on Two Felony Charges.”
I do not fear for Gov. Perry. He is a big dog with plenty of pals in high places, including Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Rather, I am disgusted by the sensationalism of our media and the fear-mongering behavior of our elected officials.
When we have differences in the United States, this is not how we solve them. Sadly, this Chicago-style, bullish politicking has been endorsed and, quite frankly, encouraged by the administration in Washington, and I do not see a resolution in the near future.
“Across the board you’re seeing people weigh in and reflecting that this is way outside of the norm,” Perry said. “This is not the way we settle differences. You don’t do it with indictments. We settle our political differences at the ballot box.”
Perry is right. We live in a society tempered by Republican government and democratic discussion, not emotive reaction and criminalized politics.
“There is no doubt (the case) is politically motivated,” former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said. “It’s a conspiracy to use the legal system to politicize politics.”
This issue is close to DeLay, as he was indicted in 2005 by a Travis County grand jury for allegedly seeking to break election laws with charges of money laundering. Unsurprisingly, the Texas Court of Appeals acquitted him of all charges in September 2013 due to “legally insufficient” evidence.
The governor has hired a high-profile legal team, with lawyers Ben Ginsberg and Tony Buzbee leading the way. Ginsberg represented former President George W. Bush in the 2000 vote recount and co-chaired President Obama’s committee on election administration.
Buzbee has won many millions of dollars in awards for his clients and promoted himself with a two-word slogan: “Just win.” Needless to say, he’s a bulldog when it comes to legal fights.
Perry is the first Texas governor to be indicted in nearly a century and, by the looks of it, he is not going to sit by and watch this battle from the sidelines. He’s fighting like any good Texan would — guns blazing.

http://www.liberty.edu/champion/2014...d-in-politics/

Attorneys: Prosecutors Have Uphill Battle in Convicting Rick Perry

Angela Morris, Texas LawyerAugust 16, 2014 | 1 Comments

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Texas Governor Rick PerryTexas Gov. Rick Perry on Saturday blasted a Travis County grand jury's indictment of him as a politically motivated effort "to rip away at the very fabric of our state's constitution.''
Perry said political differences shouldn't be settled with indictments. "This indictment amounts to nothing more than an abuse of power and I cannot and I will not allow that to happen."
Criminal defense lawyers not associated with the case said prosecutors could have an uphill battle, in part because they will have to establish what Perry's intent was when he vetoed funding for the Travis County District Attorney's Office in the wake of D.A.
Rosemary Lehmberg's drunk driving conviction in April 2013.
The indictment in State of Texas v. James Richard Perry says that between June 10 and June 14, Perry used "means of coercion" by threatening to veto Legislature-approved funding for the public integrity unit unless Lehmberg resigned as D.A. Perry intentionally tried to influence her in the performance of her duty "to continue to carry out her responsibilities as the elected District Attorney for the County of Travis," alleged the indictment.
Lehmberg was convicted in April 2013 of driving while intoxicated. Video footage of Lehmberg in jail on the night of her arrest showed her yelling at jailers, making faces and kicking her cell door, and more.
The grand jury investigation started from a complaint against Perry by Texans for Public Justice, a nonprofit advocacy group in Austin.
Perry's general counsel, Mary Anne Wiley, defended the governor's actions. "The veto in question was made in accordance with the veto authority afforded to every governor under the Texas Constitution,'' she wrote. "We will continue to aggressively defend the governor's lawful and constitutional action, and believe we will ultimately prevail."
Lawyers' Reactions

Dick DeGuerin, a prominent defense attorney in Houston, said that the indictment against Perry is "hypocrisy" and "retaliation."
"I think that Rick Perry had every right to do what he did. As governor, he had the right to call on an elected official to resign, and he had a right to cut the funding to the unit. He had the right to do that, and he should have called on her to resign," he said. "This is about retaliating against Rick Perry."
DeGuerin noted that his politics are "180 degrees" different than Perry's and he is not a Perry supporter.
He noted that one charge against Perry, "abuse of official capacity" generally means that a person used his official capacity to do something illegal. There also must be "illegal coercion" for the other charge, coercion of a public servant, he said.
"This is not an illegal purpose. It is not illegal for the governor of Texas to request and demand that a district attorney who is arrested and convicted of drunk driving to resign. That is not against the law, and it is not against the law for him to veto funding for this special section of the district attorney's office," he said.
Michael Wynne, a former assistant U.S. Attorney, said he thinks the indictment against Perry is an "abomination."
"With the power prosecutors have to impact lives of public officials, and more importantly their families, this indictment against our governor was clearly politically motivated and timed to do the most damage possible," said Wynne. "Having been a federal prosecutor handling cases like this, I am personally embarrassed by it."
The governor has the discretion to exercise his veto authority, and there's no proof he exercised it improperly or misused his constitutional powers, said Wynne, partner in McDermott, Will & Emery in Houston.
"There is no crime here: he properly exercised his veto power," he said. "Unless they have some type of smoking gun, I think sanctions should be imposed for the prosecutor."
Wynne noted that he's a registered Republican but he is not closely affiliated with the party.
Tom Ajamie, founder and managing partner in Ajamie in Houston, said Perry could use his veto power if he felt it appropriate for governmental reasons, but not to force Lehmberg to resign.
"You've got to veto for all the right reasons, and what the district attorney is saying here is he vetoed for the wrong reason. He vetoed as means of coercing someone to resign. Abuse of official capacity: it's a statute meant to stop what I said earlier—absolute power corrupts absolutely," he said. "There is nothing that gives him authority to threaten a veto to force someone to resign."
Proving the case against Perry would depend on his "state of mind" or "intent" in the veto, he explained. He guessed that if the prosecutor was comfortable brining an indictment against Perry, he must have heard testimony from someone about a statement that Perry made about his state of mind—that he was "mad" at Lehmberg and was going to do something.
"Without getting into his mind, you have to have testimony from someone," Ajamie explained.
When asked about this own political leanings, Ajamie said he donates to both parties and sees himself as "center," but would "definitely lean more Democratic."
Criminal-Defense Strategies

If he were Perry's criminal-defense lawyer, DeGuerin said he first would "advise the governor to give himself a pardon."
When asked if he was joking, DeGuerin replied, "No. He has the power of pardon."
He added, "The second thing he should do is get the case out of Austin. Although Rick Perry is very popular in the state of Texas, he is not very popular in Austin, Texas."
DeGuerin added that he would also ask that the court dismiss the indictment, arguing it doesn't state an offense because Perry had a constitutional right for his action.
Wynne also said he would "seek immediately to have it dismissed on constitutional grounds."
Ajamie said he would argue that although Perry might have been angry at Lehmberg's drunken behavior, the governor's veto decision was "completely separate."
"His thoughts to veto $7.5 million for the public integrity unit was completely different. He was wanting to veto it for different reasons," explained Ajamie.





Read more: http://www.texaslawyer.com/id=120266...#ixzz3G3khtuwG

Texas' Perry slams abuse of power charge at court hearing

By Jon Herskovitz 8 hours ago



Wochit

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN Texas (Reuters) - Texas Governor Rick Perry made his first court appearance on Thursday to answer felony abuse of power charges and afterward criticized a special prosecution that has cast a shadow over his possible Republican presidential run in 2016.

Lawyers for Perry asked the court to dismiss the charges, saying special prosecutor Michael McCrum did not properly take the oath for his post. The governor did not address the court during the hearing, which covered procedural matters.

Perry told reporters afterward that he was acting within his legal duties as governor and the special prosecutor was not complying with constitutional and statutory requirements.

"Exercising proper jurisprudence is not a technicality. It is a requirement essential to the rule of law," Perry said.

In court, special prosecutor McCrum dismissed the defense accusations as groundless and said all proper procedures were followed.
View galler

Texas Governor Rick Perry in Portsmouth, New Hampshire August 22, 2014. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

In recent trips to states that have key presidential primaries, Perry has tried to use the criminal proceedings to rally support within the Republican Party by portraying himself as the victim of a partisan prosecution.

Perry has ranked near the bottom of possible candidates among Republicans in support polls but has seen a slight increase in support since the August indictment, which came as he was gaining national attention for attacking the Obama administration over its immigration policies.

The case, however, could scare off major Republican donors in the party who see it causing long-term damage that would make it difficult for Perry to win the presidential race if he is nominated, analysts said.

Perry was indicted by a grand jury in Travis County, a Democratic stronghold in heavily Republican Texas, over his veto of funding for a state ethics watchdog that has investigated prominent Texas Republicans. He was charged with abuse of official capacity, a first-degree felony, and coercion of a public official, a third-degree felony.

The longest-serving governor in the state's history, Perry became the target of an ethics investigation last year after he vetoed $7.5 million in funding for the state public integrity unit run from the Travis County district attorney's office.

Perry's veto was widely viewed as intended to force the resignation of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat, after she had pleaded guilty to drunken driving.

Opponents have said Perry may have been looking to put an ally in charge of the unit, extending what they say is cronyism in his administration.

Perry has been governor of Texas since December 2000. He did not seek re-election this month as he tests the waters for another presidential run. He dropped out of a gaffe-filled campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination but has been attempting a political comeback.

http://news.yahoo.com/texas-gov-perr...160421605.html

Judge refuses to toss Gov. Rick Perry abuse of power case on technicalities

KPRC Houston

- ‎37 minutes ago‎

A Texas judge has refused to quash two felony indictments for abuse of power against Gov. Rick Perry on technicalities, ruling that the case against the possible 2016 presidential hopeful should continue. The governor's defense team had sought to have ...

Judge refuses to toss Perry case on constitutional grounds

By WILL WEISSERT 1 hour ago

.View photo
FILE - In this Jan. 15, 2015 file photo, Gov. Rick Perry addresses a joint session of the Texas Legislature, in Austin, Texas. A Texas judge on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015, refused to throw out a felony abuse-of-power case against former Gov. Perry on constitutional grounds, ruling that the case against the possible 2016 presidential hopeful should continue. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss a felony abuse-of-power case against former Gov. Rick Perry on constitutional grounds, ruling that criminal charges against the possible 2016 presidential candidate should stand.

District Judge Bert Richardson, who like Perry is a Republican, rejected calls from Perry's defense team to toss the case because its client was acting within his rights as chief executive of America's second-most populous state when he publicly threatened, then carried out, a 2013 veto of state funding for public corruption prosecutors.

Richardson wrote that, "Texas law clearly precludes a trial court from making a pretrial determination regarding the constitutionality of a state penal or criminal procedural statute as the statue applies to a particular defendant."

Perry was the longest-serving governor in Texas history. He chose not to seek re-election last year and left office Jan. 20. He is seriously considering a second run for president after his 2012 White House bid flamed out, however, and says he may announce a final decision as soon as May.

Perry has spent more than $1.1 million of his campaign funds on his defense — and Richard's ruling means it will likely continue for several more months at least.

Tony Buzbee, one of Perry's defense attorneys, said in a statement that the former governor "acted lawfully and properly exercised his power under the law" and that his continued prosecution "is an outrage and sets a dangerous precedent in our Democracy."

Perry was indicted in August on charges of abuse of official power and coercion of a public servant. He is accused of publicly threatening — then making good on — the veto of $7.5 million in state funding for a public corruption division within the office of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg. That came after Lehmberg, a Democrat whose county includes Austin, rebuffed Perry's calls to resign following her drunken driving conviction.

Texans for Public Justice, a, Austin, left-leaning watchdog group, raised concerns that helped spark the criminal case. The group's executive director, Craig McDonald, released a statement Tuesday saying, "The prosecutor and a grand jury have said there's compelling evidence against Perry. That evidence should be presented in court for all to see. The chances of that happening improved today."

In a 60-page motion in August, Perry's attorneys had said the law being used to prosecute him is unconstitutionally vague and decried "attempts to convert inescapably political disputes into criminal complaints."

Richardson did rule Tuesday that one of the charges against Perry was vague, but he gave the state time to correct it.

A grand jury in Austin — a liberal enclave in otherwise largely conservative Texas — indicted Perry. If convicted, the former governor faces a maximum prison sentence of 109 years. Perry calls the matter a political witch hunt and says he would issue the veto again if given the chance.

Top national Republicans initially praised Perry and decried the criminal charges against him — but they've been less vocal lately.
An exception was fellow Texan and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who's also mulling a presidential run. The tea party favorite on Tuesday night said in a statement that Perry was a friend and a man of integrity and that Richardson's ruling "profoundly undermines the rule of law."

The special prosecutor assigned to the case, San Antonio attorney Michael McCrum, has said from the start that the case is stronger than it may outwardly appear, and that it should be heard by a jury.

http://news.yahoo.com/judge-refuses-...213341554.html

Former Gov. Perry sought to 'stymie or obstruct' public corruption unit, prosecutor says

• Article by: WILL WEISSERT , Associated Press
• Updated: February 13, 2015 - 6:55 PM

AUSTIN, Texas — A special prosecutor says then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry tried to force a Democratic district attorney to resign because he didn't approve of the "historical and current management decisions" of the public corruption unit she ran, according to a Friday court filing.

The Republican Perry was indicted in August by an Austin grand jury on felony abuse-of-power charges, but the latest paperwork sheds more light on the case against him should he go to trial.

The charges stem from Perry's 2013 publicly threatening, followed by the veto of $7.5 million in state funding for a public corruption division within the office of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg.

That came after Lehmberg, whose county includes Austin, rebuffed Perry's calls to resign following her drunken driving conviction.

"The state will prove that defendant Perry did not approve of historical and current management decisions regarding the operation of the Public Integrity Unit and therefore wanted to coerce Ms. Lehmberg into resigning her elected position and/or stymie or obstruct the continued operation of the Public Integrity Unit under Ms. Lehmberg's management," wrote the special prosecutor leading the case against Perry, Michael McCrum, in a filing signed by his assistant, David Gonzalez.

Perry left office last month after a record 14 years as Texas governor, but says he'll have an announcement on his expected run for the presidency in 2016 in May or June. Perry has long maintained that he was within his rights when issuing the veto and that he'd do it again if given the chance.

Perry's legal team tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to quash the case on constitutional and technical grounds, and Perry has called it a political witch hunt. But Friday's filing suggests that the prosecution will argue that the then-governor was more interested in halting the work of the public integrity unit — and Lehmberg's efforts overseeing it — than the district attorney's drunken driving conviction.

The filing also complies with a previous order by the presiding judge, San Antonio Republican Bert Richardson, who suggested in a ruling allowing the case to continue last month that one of the criminal counts Perry faces was vague.

McCrum and Gonzalez made changes to more clearly spell out that as governor, Perry did not have direct governing authority over a local district attorney such as Lehmberg.

Perry is charged with abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant. If convicted, he could face up to 109 years in prison.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/291919191.html

All of these articles show how the left and the progressives are licking their chops to get Perry. He bucked them on their open borders and he is a threat. JMO