The Republican-led prosecution rested its case on Wednesday for impeaching the legal professional basic of Texas, Ken Paxton, ending on a central declare: that an Austin actual property investor paid for Mr. Paxton’s house renovations in trade for favors.
The testimony about counter tops and cabinetry — and payments for $121,000 — got here on the seventh day of the trial. More than a dozen witnesses, together with Mr. Paxton’s most senior aides, described how the Republican legal professional basic had repeatedly used his workplace to assist the actual property investor, Nate Paul, as he was dealing with a federal felony investigation and different authorized troubles.
It had appeared, at first, that the day would give attention to one other allegation: that Mr. Paul had helped Mr. Paxton conduct an extramarital affair. The prosecution known as the lady, Laura Olson, a former workers member to a Republican state senator and a witness whose testimony had been extremely anticipated.
Mr. Paxton’s attorneys instantly objected, and Ms. Olson waited round within the Texas Capitol, largely at a desk within the legislative library. She declined a request for remark.
“She’s present but has been deemed unavailable to testify,” stated the lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, who has been appearing because the choose within the impeachment trial. He stated he had mentioned the matter with attorneys for each side and declined to supply any additional clarification. “Both sides have agreed to that statement.”
For a lot of the trial, Ms. Olson’s key position within the prosecution’s principle of bribery and corruption by Mr. Paxton hovered within the background, eliciting occasional point out however little prolonged examination.
“It answered that ‘why’ question,” stated Jeff Mateer, a former prime official below Mr. Paxton, describing in testimony final week what he thought when he discovered of Mr. Paul’s purported connection to the extramarital affair.
The trial, earlier than the Republican-dominated State Senate, was anticipated to conclude by the top of the week. At that time, the 19 Republican and 12 Democratic senators who’ve been listening to days of testimony and have been barred from utilizing their cellphones or from discussing the case, will start deliberations. A verdict may come shortly after.
A two-thirds vote for conviction — by 21 of the 31 Texas state senators — on any of the articles of impeachment would lead to Mr. Paxton’s removing from workplace. A second two-thirds vote would stop him from holding public workplace sooner or later.
On Wednesday, the House impeachment managers moved to alter the foundations in order that there can be a single vote on every article to each take away Mr. Paxton and bar him from future workplace. The senators have been anticipated to vote on the movement on Thursday.
The impeachment has deepened rifts inside the Republican Party, with backers of Mr. Paxton, who has aligned himself with former President Donald J. Trump, attacking the Republicans supporting the prosecution as insufficiently conservative. Several witnesses began their testimony with examples of their conservative bona fides.
The prosecution’s case, introduced primarily by the well-known Houston lawyer Rusty Hardin, has largely rested on the testimony of Mr. Paxton’s personal senior aides, most of them political appointees who turned whistle-blowers in opposition to him in 2020. Several have been fired afterward.
The trial facilities on allegations that Mr. Paul — a buddy and one-time donor of $25,000 to Mr. Paxton’s re-election — assisted Mr. Paxton not solely in conducting the extramarital affair but additionally in paying for renovations to one among Mr. Paxton’s homes. In flip, prosecutors say, Mr. Paxton went to extraordinary lengths to help Mr. Paul on a number of totally different authorized issues associated to his companies in 2020. Prosecutors say the exchanges amounted to bribery.
On Wednesday, Mr. Paxton’s former government assistant, Andrew Wicker, described listening to a dialog between Mr. Paxton and his contractor about costly modifications to plans for renovating his home.
“He mentioned the total of $20,000 for the cabinetry and the countertops,” Mr. Wicker stated.
A lawyer for the prosecution, Erin Epley, requested what Mr. Paxton stated in response.
“He stated that he would like to move forward,” he stated.
And what did the contractor say, she requested.
“He said he would check with Nate,” Mr. Wicker stated, including later that he had heard the phrase repeated no less than thrice.
In one matter during which Mr. Paxton was stated to have aided Mr. Paul, witnesses stated that Mr. Paxton pressed his aides to get the legal professional basic’s workplace to intervene in a lawsuit between Mr. Paul and a nonprofit generally known as the Mitte Foundation.
In one other matter, Mr. Paxton additionally pushed to challenge a casual opinion about foreclosures gross sales in the course of the pandemic that, the aides stated, ran counter to the workplace’s coverage aim of reopening companies in the summertime of 2020. The opinion helped Mr. Paul, who had properties dealing with foreclosures, the aides stated.
A 3rd matter was the one which lastly drove the aides to report their issues. Mr. Paxton employed an out of doors lawyer to behave as a particular prosecutor and to research the dealing with of state and federal regulation enforcement investigations of Mr. Paul, who claimed {that a} search warrant on his house and business had been improperly altered.
Top officers within the legal professional basic’s workplace, together with the pinnacle of regulation enforcement, David Maxwell, had listened to Mr. Paul’s claims however refused to research them. Mr. Paxton then turned to an out of doors counsel.
“General Paxton ordered me to meet with this individual,” Mr. Maxwell recalled throughout testimony on Friday. “My evaluation of the allegations by Nate Paul were that they were absolutely ludicrous, without merit.”
Mr. Maxwell stated that Mr. Paul actually had needed the legal professional basic’s workplace to intervene with a federal investigation, including that he had warned Mr. Paxton that by involving himself carefully with Mr. Paul, he “was going to get himself indicted.”
Mr. Paxton’s attorneys have argued that Mr. Paxton had the authority to take the actions that he did and that the aides had assumed Mr. Paul was behind sure selections when he was not.
Mr. Paul, who was not known as as a witness by the prosecution, was indicted on federal costs of economic fraud in June, and he pleaded not responsible. Mr. Paxton, who additionally has not testified, pleaded not responsible to the articles of impeachment at first of the trial by way of his lawyer, Tony Buzbee.
In their cross-examinations, Mr. Buzbee and different attorneys for Mr. Paxton have steered that his aides had jumped to conclusions about his relationship with Mr. Paul and that Mr. Paxton had fired them for refusing to do their jobs and for insubordination.
In responding to the allegation that Mr. Paul had paid for renovations to the house, Mr. Buzbee confirmed Mr. Wicker photos of the kitchen, the place no updates to the cupboards or counter tops appeared to have been made.
The prosecution responded by pointing to paperwork exhibiting that the primary time Mr. Paxton was billed for renovations — an bill sought greater than $121,000 — was the day after the whistle-blowers went to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Mr. Buzbee stated Mr. Paxton had directed cost the day earlier than.
David Montgomery contributed reporting from Austin.
Source: www.nytimes.com