Ken Paxton impeachment trial: what the attorney general is accused of
NORTH TEXAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) — Ken Paxton's impeachment trial in the Texas Senate begins on Tuesday.
Over the course of the past month, Paxton's team and the the Texas House members tasked with making the case against the attorney general, have gone back and forth.
We've put together a rundown of what both sides have said, and what some of the key allegations against Paxton are.
From the start, Paxton and his legal team have sharply criticized the impeachment, calling it a sham. Paxton has argued his reelection to a third term last November is reason enough to dismiss all of the articles of impeachment against him. He said it shows voters knew about the allegations surrounding him and voted for him anyway.
"They are showcasing their absolute contempt for the electoral process," he said about House members in a public statement one day before they impeached him.
His legal team also said the House didn't have evidence to support the impeachment articles.
"The impeachment articles that have been laid out by the House are baloney," Buzbee said during a June news conference in Austin. "When I read the 20 articles of impeachment, my first thought was these are worthless and weak."
In their response, House Impeachment Managers said:
"Paxton can run, but he cannot hide. The Senate trial is fast approaching, and both the Senate and the public are not fully aware of how bad Paxton's actions really were."
The House then released nearly 4,000 pages of documents from their investigation into Paxton.
The attorney general is accused of abusing the power of his office to benefit himself and Nate Paul, a campaign donor who was under federal investigation and later indicted in an unrelated case.
Appellate attorney David Coale, who is not involved in the case, said the House Manager's rebuttal here is that voters did not know all about the allegations against Paxton.
"They may have known some things, but they certainly didn't know the whole story. That's a powerful argument."
Even though these aren't criminal charges, Paxton is accused of constitutional bribery in two of the 20 articles. In one of them, the House said Paul paid for renovations to the attorney general's house in Austin.
The documents from House impeachment managers show an email from the contractor doing the work on Paxton's house to Paul with photos of the work being done.
Paxton's executive assistant Andrew Wicker told House investigators that he was there when Paxton and the contractor spoke about placing a different countertop in the kitchen, which he believed was "an additional 20 grand or something."
Wicker said he heard the contractor say, "I will check with Nate."
Days later, Wicker said he asked Paxton about it directly, saying he had heard the conversation and it had made him uncomfortable because it came off as "an arrangement in which Nate Paul might have been taking part in the home renovations."
Wicker said Paxton said he appreciated him bringing the concerns up, but he assure him that was not the case.
Documents from the House Impeachment Managers show the contractor doing the work on Paxton's house emailed photos of the work to Paul and a man named Raj at the same company.
Records provided by Impeachment Managers show on Oct. 1, 2020, Paxton wired more than $121,000 to Cupertino Builders, a firm whose corporate officer is Raj, who's described as "a friend and employee of Nate Paul's."
The House says Cupertino Builders wasn't authorized to do business at the time.
That same day, Oct. 1, 2020, House records show Paxton's top hand-picked lieutenants in the office sent him a test telling him they "made a good faith report of violations of law by you to an appropriate law enforcement authority" concerning his relationship and activities with Paul.
The other impeachment article in which Paxton is accused of constitutional bribery involves Paul hiring a woman with whom "Paxton was having an extramarital affair." The House has said this made it easier for Paxton to see the woman, because she moved to Austin from San Antonio.
The documents accuse the Attorney General of using an Uber account under a fake name, a secret personal email account and burner phones to hide his alleged affair and the extent of his relationship with Paul.
House Impeachment Managers also said "Paxton frequently ditched his security detail so he could meet with Paul and others" and that "Uber records reflect drivers picked up Paxton under the alias of 'Dave P' a block from his home and ferried him to his lover's or Paul's properties more than a dozen times" in 2020.
In exchange, Paxton is accused of providing Paul with "favorable legal assistance from or specialized access to" the Office of the Attorney General. Specifically, House documents say Paxton used his office to interfere with a federal investigation into Paul, among other things.
Paxton's lawyers blasted the large number of documents that were released, saying:
"House managers and counsel have engaged in a vindictive campaign to destroy the Attorney General's reputation under the guise of secretive proceedings, abusing the impeachment process, attorney-client privilege, this court's gag order, and the voting public's trust in our system of government."
"They can't just let it sit out there, and it's going to be along the lines of this is just personal stuff that's being thrown out there to make the man look bad," Coale said. "The problem, though, is that connection back to the underlying relationship with Mr. Paul, and that's where I think the House Managers are going to try to keep this going as the case heads into trial."