Texas House releases thousands of pages of documents leading up to Ken Paxton's impeachment trial
DALLAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) — Texas House impeachment managers presented thousands of pages of documents in the weeks before Attorney General Ken Paxton's impeachment trial.
The documents, nearly 4,000 pages, became public late Thursday night and appear on the Texas Senate's website.
They come in response to claims by Paxton and his legal team that there is no evidence to support the 20 articles of impeachment against him.
At the heart of this political impeachment, Paxton is accused of abusing the power of his office to benefit himself and a campaign donor named Nate Paul, who was under federal investigation at the time in question.
He has since been indicted on unrelated federal charges.
Earlier this week, the House impeachment managers revealed Paxton used burner phones, secret personal email accounts, and a fake Uber account to hide his alleged mistress, and the extent of his relationship with Paul.
Among the thousands of newly released documents is the history of Paxton's Uber trips.
Impeachment managers say he used the alias "Dave P." They also provided the addresses where Paxton traveled to on this account.
Paxton has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
He and his legal team have also argued that the impeachment should be dropped because voters knew about the allegations and re-elected him anyway last November.
Attorney David Coale of Dallas, who's not related to the impeachment said, "This evidence that the House officers, House managers have put forward is designed to show people didn't know everything when they elected him. There were efforts to conceal this, to conceal that, to conceal operations within the Attorney General's Office from other people in the Attorney General's Office and that's a very powerful rebuttal."
Coale said while there are a lot of documents, the House impeachment managers will have witnesses testify so they can explain to the jurors—the state senators—how everything is connected.
Before there are any witnesses who take the stand, the senators will rule on Paxton's request not to testify and whether to drop some of the impeachment articles against him.
The trial begins Sept. 5.
In response to the House's release of the new documents, Paxton's legal team filed a motion Friday evening to dismiss the articles of impeachment and sanction the House impeachment managers.
Paxton's lawyers said in their motion, "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."
