Clinton alum joins Perry legal team

A Clinton White House alumnus is joining Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s legal team.

Mark Fabiani, who also worked on former Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign and helped write a book in 2012 about crisis management and damage control, will help Perry’s defense, the governor’s office announced Monday. 

{mosads}”I’m proud to join Gov. Perry’s outstanding team which has been assembled to fight back against this attack on the rule of law,” Fabiani said, in a statement released from Perry’s office. 

“As we move forward to protect the Texas Constitution and the First Amendment rights of any governor, I am confident this prosecution will be revealed to be contrary to the law and wholly meritless.”

Perry is fighting two felony charges that he misused his office and tried to coerce a Texas district attorney to resign after her drunk driving arrest by threatening to veto funding. Perry has recently attempted to brand the charges as baseless by pointing to a number of Democrats who have questioned the indictment. 

On Monday, his lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the charges by arguing the indictment is based on laws that are “fatally vague and overbroad.” 

Fabiani served as special council to former President Clinton and helped him through a number of scandals during his tenure. He also served as a deputy campaign manager for Gore focusing on communications and strategy. 

He helps lead a California-based consulting firm with another Clinton alum, Chris Lehane. The firm, Fabiani & Lehane, provides strategic advice for “individuals facing complex financial, marketing, branding, media, legal and image challenges.”

He co-authored the book Masters of Disaster: The Ten Commandments of Damage Control, which was published in 2012. 

“For those of us that aren’t natural spin doctors, it’s hard to resist the impulse to cover your tracks, lie, or act like nothing happened. But resist you must!” reads a description of the book on Amazon. 

Perry’s legal team, led by Houston attorney Tony Buzbee, already has a handful of high-profiled attorneys, including Ben Ginsberg, a former lawyer to the campaigns of George W. Bush and Mitt Romney.