The impeachment trial of Ken Paxton (R) is fascinating to watch

For those who may not know, the current AG of Texas, Ken Paxton, was impeached in the Texas House of Representatives by a vote of 121-23, with 5 abstentions (81.2% to 15.4%).

The TX HOR currently is comprised of 85R / 64D with one vacancy, so 149 out of 150 seats are filled. 61 Democrats in the TX HOR voted to impeach Paxton, which means that 60 out of the 85 Republicans in the HOR, or 71% of Rs in the House, voted with Democrats to impeach Paxton. It was a truly evenly-matched bi-partisan vote to impeach.



Link to graphic above.

The impeachment managers from the TX HOR drafted about 20 articles of impeachment.

The trial of Ken Paxton started last week in the TX Senate. The TX Senate has 31 senators but only 30 are allowed to be seated as and vote as jurors since the 31st is Paxton's wife.

This article outlines the main themes of what Paxton is being accused of:

Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial: What to know about the first week | The Texas Tribune

One month before the 2020 elections, his upper staff reported him to the FBI for numerous crimes, including using the TX Department of Justice to cover for his friend, a ponzi-schemer named Nate Paul. Both Nate Paul and Ken Paxton believe that the FBI investigations into Nate Paul are part of a deepstate conspiracy and Paxton wanted to provide to Paul the entire listing of FBI agents and witnesses that had been gathered against Paul - a highly illegal act. How he did this is even more brazen and chilling. Read up on it.

His upper staff became 6 whistleblowers and then he took retaliation upon them.

Also, Nate Paul provided upstanding G-d fearing Ken Paxton with a mistress to **** while he was away from Austin but that wasn't good enough to Paxton, he wanted his new ***** closer to home, so Nate helped him move his little love-bird to Austin, surely to the thrill of Nate Paxton's wife. Ahhhh, family values.

So, that's the background in a nutshell.

4 of 6 witnesses were called in the first week. All are arch-Conservatives and believe in the Conservative movement, so this is no Liberal Deep State thingy.

One thing I have learned watching law play out is if you are winning, you attack on facts and if you are losing, you attack on form.

The defense team flew off the handle more than once, berated and swore at the witnesses, which did not play well for the defense team.

The last witness for the week was David Maxwell, apparently a legendary Texas Ranger, who has been in law enforcement for well over 50 years. An older guy, I think the defense thought they could trip him up, but he ended up being - by far - the best witness of all, keeping his answers short, timely and he needed no notes. Maxwell was on vacation in Colorado when the **** hit the fan in the Fall of 2020, but after he refused to do Nate Paul's bidding, Paxton had him fired in a most unceremonious way.

Paxton put forth 20 motions at the beginning of the trial, before he was sworn-in as the defendant. Just as with the jury decision to convict and remove, all motions require a 2/3 vote. Out of the 30 Senators who can vote, vis-a-vis Paxton's motions, all of which failed, he never got more than 9 votes for any of them, and more often than not, only 7 or 6. This tells me that the verdict is somewhat already baked in and if the Senators mantain this course after the final arguments, then he is likely to be convicted and removed on most all, if not all, counts. This means that 2/3 of Republicans in the HOR couldn't stand him and 2/3 of Republicans in the Senate cannot stand him either. And that what people think is a ruby-red state like Texas.

This is not like the TWO impeachments of Donald Trump, where almost 100% of Republicans clung to him, no matter what. What is going down in TX is a Republican Party bound and determined to get rid of one of their own because even they cannot dismiss the overabundant evidence of his criminality.

The Lt. Gov of Texas, Dan Patrick, is presiding as the Judge over the TX Senate. Since he himself is not a law-dude, he has smartly surrounded himself with a panel of real lawyers to advise him in real time as the trial progresses.

If you get a chance to catch some of the trial next week, you should.

-Stat