The Texas Senate on Saturday ended deliberations over whether Attorney General Ken Paxton needs to be faraway from office, putting the Republican’s historic impeachment trial getting ready to a verdict.
The jury of 30 senators, most of whom are Republicans, spent about eight hours deliberating behind closed doors. A two-thirds majority is required to convict Paxton on any of 16 articles of impeachment that accuse Paxton of bribery, corruption and unfitness for office.
Voting was expected to start after 11 a.m. CT. About 50 members of the general public took seats within the gallery because the Senate chamber reopened for the vote. Paxton, who didn’t attend the vast majority of the two-week trial, was not seen within the chamber as some senators wandered around their desks.
The vote could possibly be a slow, public process. Each article of impeachment gets a separate vote. Republicans hold a 19-12 majority within the Senate, meaning that if all Democrats vote to convict Paxton, they would wish nine Republicans to affix them.
Deliberations began Friday, and the talks dragging out for greater than a day behind closed doors fed a rare lack of assurance about how a vote might go within the Texas Capitol, where a dominant Republican majority typically signifies that outcomes are seldom doubtful.
The trial has plunged Texas Republicans into unfamiliar waters as they confront whether Paxton needs to be removed over allegations that he abused his office to guard a political donor who was under FBI investigation.
The suspense has pushed pushed Paxton, whose three terms in office have been marred by scandal and criminal charges, closer to a defining test of his political durability after a unprecedented impeachment that was driven by his fellow Republicans and has widened party fractures in America’s biggest red state. For nearly a decade, Paxton has elevated his national profile by rushing his office into polarizing courtroom battles across the U.S., winning acclaim from Donald Trump and the GOP’s hard right.
Making one final appeal to convict Texas’ top lawyer, impeachment mangers used their closing arguments Friday to forged him as a crook who needed to go.
“If we do not keep public officials from abusing the powers of their office, then frankly nobody can,” Republican state Rep. Andrew Murr, who helped lead the impeachment within the Texas House, said in his closing arguments.
If convicted, Paxton would turn out to be Texas’ first statewide official convicted on impeachment charges in greater than 100 years. A verdict could arrive later Saturday.
In an indignant and defiant rebuttal, Paxton lawyer Tony Buzbee unleashed attacks on a wide-ranging forged of figures each inside and out of doors the Texas Capitol, mocking a Texas Ranger who warned Paxton he was risking indictment and one other accuser who cried on the witness stand.
Leaning into divisions amongst Republicans, Buzbee portrayed the impeachment as a plot orchestrated by an old guard of GOP rivals. He singled out George P. Bush, the nephew of former President George W. Bush who challenged Paxton within the 2022 Republican primary, punctuating a blistering closing argument that questioned the integrity of FBI agents and railed against Texas’ most famous political dynasty.
“I’d suggest to you this can be a political witch hunt,” Buzbee said. “I’d suggest to you that this trial has displayed, for the country to see, a partisan fight inside the Republican Party.”
Paxton returned for closing arguments after not attending a lot of the two-week trial. Sitting across the room was his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, who was required to be present for the entire trial but was barred from participating in deliberations or voting on her husband’s political fate.
The case centers on accusations that Paxton misused his office to assist one among his donors, Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, who was indicted in June on charges of creating false statements to banks. Paul has pleaded not guilty.
Eight of Paxton’s former deputies reported him to the FBI in 2020, setting off a federal investigation that can proceed whatever the verdict. Federal prosecutors investigating Paxton took testimony in August before a grand jury in San Antonio , in line with two individuals with knowledge of the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity due to secrecy rules across the proceeding.
One said the grand jury heard from Drew Wicker, Paxton’s former personal aide. On the impeachment trial, Wicker testified that he once heard a contractor tell Paxton he would wish to envision with “Nate” about the fee of renovations to the attorney general’s Austin home.
During closing arguments, the defense told senators there was either no evidence for the fees or that there wasn’t enough to rise beyond an affordable doubt. The House impeachment managers, against this, walked through specific documents and played clips of testimony by the deputies who reported Paxton to the FBI.
One in all the impeachment articles centers on an alleged extramarital affair Paxton had with Laura Olson, who worked for Paul. It alleges that Paul’s hiring of Olson amounted to a bribe. She was called to the witness stand but ultimately never testified. One other article alleges the developer also bribed Paxton by paying for his home renovations.
The decision will probably be decided by 30 of the 31 state senators, most of them Republicans.
Paxton faces an array of legal troubles beyond the impeachment. Besides the federal investigation for a similar allegations that gave rise to his impeachment, he also faces a bar disciplinary proceeding over his effort to overturn the 2020 election and has yet to face trial on state securities fraud charges dating to 2015.
He pleaded not guilty within the state case, but his lawyers have said removal from office might open the door to a plea agreement.
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