Paxton impeachment trial starts this week

Suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton will go to trial at 9:00 a.m. for Articles of impeachment on September 5 in the Texas Senate chamber. As the thetexan. news states “Texans are only eight days away from witnessing a singular event in the Lone Star State’s history.” Hometown Tony Buzbee has been tapped to be the lead attorney to represent Attorney General Ken Paxton in an upcoming impeachment trial before the state Senate.

The Texas Senate has outlined the timetable for the impeachment process: Under the Texas Constitution, the House of Representatives is vested with the power of impeachment and the Senate has the duty to conduct the trial (Article XV, Sections 1 and 2).

On May 27, 2023, the House of Representatives adopted 20 Articles of Impeachment against Warren Kenneth Paxton, Jr., Attorney General of the State of Texas (H.R. No. 2377, 88th Legislature, Regular Session).

On May 29, the final day of the 88th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature, the House Board of Managers delivered the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. The House Board of Managers are Representatives Murr, chair; A. Johnson, vice chair; Geren; Moody; Canales; Leach; Longoria; Meyer; Cain; Vasut; Spiller; and Gamez.

The Senate will convene on September 5, 2023, as a high court of impeachment to consider the Articles of Impeachment (S.R. No. 36, 88th Legislature, 1st Called Session).

Ken Paxton, who is the 51st Attorney General of Texas was elected on November 4, 014, and sworn into office on January 5, 2015. He was re-elected to a second term in 2018 and a third term in 2022.

On May 27, 2023, the House voted 121-23 to suspend the attorney general and refer him to the Senate for trial on charges of bribery, abuse of office and obstruction. According to the Texas Tribune, it was the first such impeachment since 1975.

Afterward the house impeachment, Paxton called the vote “illegal, unethical, and profoundly unjust.”

Paxton issued a release saying that “the General Investigating Committee’s politically motivated investigation against Attorney General Paxton is predicated on long-disproven claims grounded in hearsay and gossip. In August of 2021, after nearly a year of diligent investigation into these claims from former employees, the Office of the Attorney General released an exhaustive report that ultimately refuted each of the former employees’ allegations. In that report, the OAG stated it would further investigate the allegations and supplement as necessary. Subsequently, the OAG retained an outside law firm to conduct further investigation into the claims of retaliation by the former employees.” He later said that he looks forward to the trial, where Buzbee will be representing him.

The impeachment came after the House Committee on General Investigating, comprised of three Republicans and two Democrats, on May 25, “unanimously voted to file articles of impeachment against Paxton. The articles marked the culmination of an investigation the committee opened into the attorney general after he asked lawmakers to fund a $3.3 million settlement in a whistleblower lawsuit filed against him by a group of former employees,” says in an article in courthouse news.

“In their lawsuit, the whistleblowers accuse Paxton of retaliating against them after they reported him to the FBI for using his office to benefit Austin real estate investor and campaign donor Nate Paul. There are also allegations that Paxton accepted bribes from Paul in the form of renovations to his Austin-area home.”

Nate Paul is currently charged with eight felony counts of making false statements to financial institutions. “The Austin real estate investor was a central figure in allegations that led the Texas House to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton last month. One of the charges against Paul has ties the impeachment allegations.” – Texas Tribune.

There are also allegations that he got a job for a woman the attorney general was said to be having a secret extramarital affair with.

In response to the reason why the House Committee on General Investigating would so quickly turn around the allegations for impeachment Buzbee told the Journal-Sun that it was “because their case is weak as sock water and smells the same.

In the same article referenced earlier from the Courthouse News, Buzbee accused the investigating committee of rushing the proceedings and failing to provide Paxton with adequate due process to plead his case.

“It took less than 72 hours for the House to pass those articles of impeachment … what they did was convene a hurried, secretive kangaroo court more like something you would see in a third world country,” Buzbee said. “They rejected every ethical, moral and legal concept that exists in law.”

In one of the interviews with Paxton, he was quoted that he believed he would not be removed from office. When asked why, he told the Journal Sun, “Because we will easily beat this back. The effort behind this couldn’t beat General Paxton at the ballot box (he was elected state-wide multiple times). So, because they couldn’t win the eighth way, they chose this illegitimate way; they tried to remove him a different way. I expect Attorney General Paxton to prevail.”

Buzbee also told the Journal Sun, when asked why he took the case, that he “had the good fortune to be hired on some of the largest and most important cases in our great State in recent history. I was flattered to be asked by our AG to lead his defense. This (impeachment) is only the third time this has happened in our state’s entire history. I can only speculate on why the Attorney General retained me but I’m flattered to be lead counsel, but I, of course, think he made the right choice. You may recall, several years back, when the Governor of our state (Rick Perry) was indicted for what I consider to be equal foolishness, I was also the lead lawyer defending him. We won that case for Governor Perry. And I expect we will win this one as well.”

Buzbee, who will be representing Paxton was originally from Cass County, and has an office in Downtown Atlanta, Texas. He has been the lawyer for several high-profile cases including the sexual abuse civil trial against NFL Quarterback Deshaun Watson and a $750 million lawsuit against rapper Travis Scott on behalf of 120 victims who died or were injured during the Astroworld Festival crowd crush. Buzbee is also representing the civil matter for Blake Sampson’s mother against James Brooks Jr. The man who was recently convicted in the child abuse case against Blake.

Buzbee who currently resides in Houston, and does the majority of his work there has appeared on the cover of New York Times Magazine, was named a top five “go to” lawyer in commercial litigation by the Texas Lawyer and is repeatedly named a “superlawyer” by Thomson Reuters. In a bio on top100highstakeslitigators. com it was mentioned that “in 2015, Mr. Buzbee was named “Attorney of the Year” by Texas Lawyer due to winning eight cases in a single year, including verdicts of $159 million; $41 million; $35 million; $30 million; and $12 million, all while also representing Governor Rick Perry in his criminal case that Buzbee was ultimately able to get dismissed.” Buzbee also ran a hard-fought Houston Mayoral race where he was defeated in a runoff.