House Managers in the Texas Senate impeachment trial of suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton are expected to wrap up their case during Day 6 of testimony.
House impeachment managers may rest their case today. If that happens, the defense may begin to call witnesses.
On the morning of Day 5, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick announced that both House Managers and Paxton’s defense had spent approximately 14 hours on their part of the impeachment trial. House impeachment rules govern the procedures and amount of time for the trial. Each side has 24 hours to present their case and the defense.
Each side has one hour for closing arguments. Patrick estimated that the trial would be of out the allotted time sometime Thursday morning (Day 8). Lt. Governor Patrick serves as the president of the Texas Senate and in that capacity, is acting as “judge” over the trial. Part of his responsibilities is to overrule or sustain objections and decide on the admissibility of exhibit evidence.
On Day 5, the 30 senators serving as jurors in the impeachment trial heard additional evidence from four witnesses. Those witnesses included more of Paxton’s hand-picked leadership.
Former Deputy Attorney General for Law Enforcement Mark Penley testified about Paxton’s request that he and former Texas Ranger David Maxwell investigate the federal investigators who were looking into Nate Paul. Penley said some of these were the same people investigating Paxton on his pending securities fraud case.
Paxton’s former chief of staff, Katherine “Missy” Minter Cary, followed Penley on the witness stand. She testified to many issues involving the articles of impeachment, including Paxton’s contract with a lawyer hired by Paxton to investigate federal and DPS investigators and public record requests designed to assist donor Natin “Nate” Paul.
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She also weighed in on the impact of Paxton’s admitted extramarital affair with Larua Olson. She testified on the cost to the State incurred by staff and security details.
“I told General Paxton quite bluntly it wasn’t my business who he was sleeping with, but when things bleed over into the office and into the state work, it becomes my business,” Cary stated.
Cary also testified that at one point, she believed the upper echelon was spending 50 percent of their time on Nate Paul.
Former Travis County District Attorney’s Office Director of Operations Greg Cox testified his office looked into a records request in October 2020 dealing to AG Paxton and Nate Paul. He noticed possible criminal offenses related to bribery, abuse of office, and conspiracy in connection to Paxton. He explained their office backed off due to an ongoing federal investigation.
The jurors also heard from former Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore. The former DA testified that her staff found Nate Paul’s claims that he was victimized by a wide-ranging conspiracy of multiple law enforcement agencies to be “rediculous.”
“I expected it to be a dead issue,” she testified.
Lana Shadwick is a writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She is a trial lawyer who practices criminal defense and family law in East Texas. She served as a Texas prosecutor and family court associate judge in Harris County, Texas.
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2023/09/12/live-day-6-of-texas-ag-impeachment-trial-house-testimony-expected-to-wrap-up/