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After about eight hours of deliberations, Texas Senators adjourned at 8 p.m. Friday without reaching a verdict in the impeachment trial of suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. They are expected to take up the case again at 9 a.m. Saturday.
After calling only four witnesses, Paxton’s defense team rested its case on Thursday evening in Austin. The efficient manner in which the trial unfolded yesterday allowed for Friday to be set up as a sort of showdown day, with both sides scheduled to present closing arguments before the Senate jury and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
After the emotional and turbulent events of Wednesday’s proceedings, the defense, led by Houston attorney Tony Buzbee, provided a rather bland, predictable and fully anticlimactic close to the trial’s witness testimony.
Laura Olsen, the woman Paxton is alleged to have a long-running extramarital affair with that resulted in supposed dirty deeds involving the bribery of Paxton by campaign contributor Nate Paul, was set to testify for the prosecution on Wednesday, but was deemed ineligible after reportedly informing officials she would invoke her Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate herself.
Each of the four people called to the stand on Thursday for the defense are current employees of the attorney general’s office, and they each felt as though their controversial boss is doing a pretty swell job of being the right-wing defender of liberty he has told everyone he is.
For closing arguments on Friday, each side was allowed an hour to put the cherry on top of their respective cases.
The Prosecution
State Rep. Andrew Murr, a Republican from Junction, chair of the House Board of Managers leading Paxton’s prosecution, spoke first. Murr is also one of the representatives who served on the House General Investigating Committee that drafted the articles of impeachment against the AG in May. He spoke for about 10 minutes before allowing the defense to have their first turn.
He set the stage with perhaps the strongest sentiment expressed against Paxton during the entire, nearly two-week trial.
“Mr. Paxton’s attorneys like to remind everyone that he was elected by 4.2 million voters,” Murr said to the Senate jury. “But they have blindly ignored the fact that he has only ended up serving one person, himself.”
Later, after Buzbee and another member of the defense team, lawyer Dan Cogdell, each provided closing argument remarks, Murr returned to the stand. He immediately brought up the way in which Paxton acted during the heated days of the 2020 pandemic-related shutdowns. Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott had been perhaps the most vocal proponents of “reopening” throughout the U.S. But as Murr argued, Paxton’s hotly contested move to halt outdoor foreclosure sales due to health and safety reasons, which directly helped Nate Paul, the prosecution contended, was hypocritical. Murr said it showed the AG’s ability to use his position to act on behalf of Paul to the detriment of the state.
Murr also played a number of audio clips from the previous eight days worth of witness testimony. Playing damning quotes from former Paxton lieutenants including Ryan Bangert, the prosecution aimed to reinforce their closing by referring to hot spots from the trial’s earliest days.
Providing an emotional close to the prosecution’s closing argument, Plano state Rep. Jeff Leach employed a nearly religious tone to his remarks. Leach, a longtime friend of Paxton’s, called the AG his “brother in Christ” and said that he “has loved” him in response to the defense’s claim that those House Republicans who voted to impeach Paxton hated the attorney general. Leach said he had an open door to Paxton for many years, up until the last couple of years, at which time, Leach began growing concerned over how Paxton was running his office.
“Mr. Paxton’s attorneys like to remind everyone that he was elected by 4.2 million voters, but they have blindly ignored the fact that he has only ended up serving one person, himself.” – Rep. Andrew Murr (R – Junction)
The Defense
If the prosecution provided a new wrinkle to inspect by having Murr and Leach speak instead of the attorneys that argued the case, it’s not a stretch to suggest that Buzbee and Cogdell went the opposite direction to provide basically the same old, same old during their closing argument.
Buzbee did seek to take some new shots at the House managers, but inevitably, he managed to always arrive at the same few points he’s hammered on for two weeks. He criticized the way in which the articles of impeachment were written, but he quickly added that Paxton “has been a rock” for Texas and that the Lone Star State is “where Biden’s policies go to die,” a phrase that had been uttered verbatim a few days prior.
Buzbee retreated to other familiar statements during his time in front of the jury. He noted that Paxton won re-election easily even though the electorate was aware of the allegations against him. Buzbee also broke out the biblically inspired “We have all sinned and have fallen short” line that he offered earlier in the trial before adding “if this impeachment is based on a marital impropriety, then line up, we’re going to be doing a lot of impeaching in this city.”
It’s worth noting that Paxton, in fact, is not on trial or being impeached simply for having an affair. The alleged relationship with Olsen is relevant because the House managers claim Paxton arranged for Paul to hire Olsen, which they say, is a benefit to the AG and therefore considered constitutional bribery.
“We have all sinned and have fallen short.” – Tony Buzbee, Paxton defense attorney
Reasonable doubt was perhaps the defense’s major theme during closing. Buzbee suggested the prosecution failed to provide hard evidence, which should, in turn, give jurors enough reasonable doubt to acquit Paxton. Buzbee noted that “this isn’t a criminal trial, but a political trial,” before adding another favored conservative phrase, saying the trial “is a political witch hunt.”
After Leach brought the closing arguments to an end near 12 p.m. Patrick explained that the jurors would deliberate until 8 p.m. Friday, unless they reached a verdict sooner. He added that deliberations, if necessary, would continue on Saturday from 9 a.m.-8 pm. and if more time is needed, deliberations would again begin on Sunday a 12 p.m. and continue until a verdict was reached.
