Eye on Politics: Federal charges against former President Trump, Nate Paul
AUSTIN (CBSNewsTexas.com) - In this episode of Eye on Politics (air date: June 9), political reporter Jack Fink covers the federal charges filed against former President Donald Trump and the the race for the White House, which included stops in North Texas by two Republican candidates. He also continued to stay on top of the two big stories reverberating around the Texas Capitol: the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton and the newly filed criminal charges against an Austin developer linked to Paxton and the political showdown between Governor Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick over how to provide property tax relief to Texans.
Every week, CBS News Texas political reporter Jack Fink breaks down some of the biggest political stories grabbing headlines in North Texas and beyond. Watch the latest episode of Eye on Politics in the video player above and stream new episodes live every Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. on CBS News Texas.
Former President Donald Trump charged
Former President Donald Trump has announced and CBS News has confirmed he has been charged by a federal grand jury in Miami related to his handling of sensitive government documents after he left office.
Friday afternoon, the 44-page federal indictment against Trump was unsealed, detailing the charges the former president is facing related to his handling of sensitive government records after leaving the White House.
Developer linked to Ken Paxton arrested on federal charges
Austin developer Nate Paul, who's linked to suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton and named in the articles of impeachment against him, has been arrested by the FBI on federal charges.
He was charged Friday with eight counts of making false statements while seeking loans from mortgage lenders in 2017 and 2018.
Paxton has also been under investigation by federal authorities since the fall of 2020.
Impeachment of Ken Paxton
This week, lawyers for Attorney General Ken Paxton spoke out for the first time and said their client is innocent and that they don't believe the evidence against him is strong at all.
It will be up to Texas Senators to listen and weigh all of the evidence against Paxton and decide if he should be removed as Attorney General permanently.
Paxton has been suspended without pay ever since the Texas House impeached him on Memorial Day weekend.
He is accused of abusing his office and power so he could help himself and a campaign donor.
Among the 20 articles of impeachment: abuse of public trust, being unfit for office, dereliction of duty and constitutional bribery.
Attorneys who will be prosecuting the case spoke at a news conference last week.
As for Paxton, he and his lawyers have strongly denied he did anything wrong.
Paxton's attorneys held their news conference Wednesday at the Texas Republican party headquarters.
A party spokesman told CBS News Texas that its office is open to all elected Republicans.
The impeachment trial will start by August 28th, but Senators will soon decide an exact date along with the rules and procedures for the trial.
No word yet if Paxton's wife, Senator Angela Paxton, will recuse herself.
Political standoff over property tax relief
The political standoff between Governor Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick over how to provide Texans with property tax relief continued for its second week.
Neither man is backing down.
Lawmakers have already agreed to provide property owners $17.6 billion in relief, more than half of the state's budget surplus.
But until the House and Senate pass the same exact bill, you and other homeowners and business owners are not going to see lower property tax bills.
Under the bill passed by the House and backed by Governor Abbott, the state would reduce property taxes that are used to pay for public schools and instead use more state funding such as the sales tax and surplus money.
Their plan is to keep doing that until the school districts' maintenance and operations or M&O portion of your property tax bill is reduced to zero over a 10 year period.
The Senate plan does not call for gradually ending the school property tax.
But it does include a provision to reduce the amount of property taxes and increase state sales tax to pay for public schools.
It also increases the homestead exemption for homeowners, which nearly doubles their savings at least starting out.
Governor Abbott though said the state has tried this strategy before.
The Lt. Governor said the school property tax can't be eliminated despite what the Governor and others say.
And Governor Greg Abbott said that until there's a solution, he'll keep calling back lawmakers for special session after special session until they provide property tax relief to Texans.
Two Republican presidential candidates visit North Texas amid growing field of vying for nomination
The race for the White House came through Texas for two Republican candidates.
They include former South Carolina Governor and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley who attended a fundraiser at a Dallas home Wednesday eveningand campaigned in West Texas Thursday morning.
At a news conference in Stanton, Texas Thursday morning, Haley championed the oil and gas industry and vowed to increase U.S. energy production. "Now is the time to realize that energy security is national security. First, we're going to stop demonizing energy producers, and we're going to empower them to go and help us. We want to make sure that we stop all the green subsidies, get those out of the way. We want to speed up permitting so that these pipelines can happen faster."
UT Arlington political science professor Rebecca Deen said Haley's visit to West Texas is telling. "That tells me that she's trying to solidify her bonafides among the most conservative in the GOP electorate."
Another Republican vying for the party's nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, also attended a fundraiser in downtown Fort Worth, where we saw him leaving Thursday morning.
He then headed to another event at a Dallas home and later held a similar event in Houston.
Deen said, "Texas has deep pockets. There are viable candidates who are going to come through here for fundraising, not only for garnering actual money but also to increase their cachet among that donor elite."
They're among the 10 Republican candidates, also including former President Donald Trump, his former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Deen said, "There's dissatisfaction among the GOP electorate. It is interesting that a former President is garnering so many opponents."
Analysis on Republican presidential primary
We spoke with UT Arlington political science professor Dr. Rebecca Deen about the Republican Presidential Primary.