'Creep of corruption': Ken Paxton pleads not guilty as Senate impeachment trial gets underway

At the outset of Ken Paxton's highly anticipated impeachment trial Tuesday, the suspended attorney general pleaded not guilty to the 16 impeachment articles he is facing after the Texas Senate rejected all of Paxton's motions seeking to dismiss the charges, including bribery and abuse of office.

Voting in bipartisan fashion against Paxton, most of the 30 senators who are acting as jurors in the trial decided to allow the proceeding to move forward with all impeachment charges in play. The trial could last four to six weeks.

Paxton, who could be removed from his post and be barred from ever holding elected office in Texas, will not be required to testify in his impeachment trial and was absent during the proceeding's afternoon session.

In the only motion that went Paxton's way Tuesday morning, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is presiding over the trial, sided with Paxton's defense team when it argued that the trial is akin to a criminal proceeding, in which a defendant cannot be compelled to testify.

Patrick, while deciding several pretrial motions from prosecutors and defense attorneys, said the impeachment trial is like a criminal proceeding as Paxton is required to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty, and prosecutors are required to turn over exculpatory evidence favorable to Paxton.

"It leans more criminal in nature," Patrick said before the morning trial session recessed for lunch.

Through the voting process that took up most of the morning, several Republican senators continuously voted with Democrats to sustain the articles of impeachment, while others switched their votes from opposition to support depending on the article in question.

Sens. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston; Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels; Bob Hall, R-Edgewood; Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe; Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, and Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, voted in favor of each of Paxton's motions to dismiss the charges.

As many votes ended with a 24-6 or 22-8 tally to reject Paxton's motions to dismiss the charges, one such article — tied to Paxton's March request that House budget writers allocate $3.3 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit by former attorney general's office employees who allege they were fired after raising concerns to the FBI of Paxton's behavior — garnered the most support from Senators, 20-10, to throw out. Sens. Brian Birdwell R-Granbury; Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, and Kevin Sparks, R-Midland, joined the other Republicans supporting Paxton in his bid to have that charged dismissed.

Support from at least two-thirds of the senator-jurors, or 21 of 30, is required to settle motions and convict Paxton on any impeachment charge. Upon conviction on any one charge, Paxton will be removed from office. The Senate will afterward take a vote on whether to bar Paxton from ever holding elected office in the state.

Whistleblowers, fraud and Nate Paul: A timeline of Texas AG Ken Paxton's impeachment trial

The audience in the Senate gallery overlooking the cavernous chamber Tuesday was largely pro-Paxton. And several sometimes shook their heads in frustration when procedural votes went against the three-term Republican attorney general.

Rebecca Broughton, sporting a red T-shirt with a Paxton sticker emblazoned with "I'm a God fearin', gun supportin', conservative votin' Christian," said she was outraged that the Republican-dominated Senate rejected each one of the attorney general's efforts to have the charges dismissed.

"I think it's a sham; it's a total sham," Broughton said after the trial's morning session concluded. "The voters voted for him to be our attorney general knowing 98% of all this. What they (the GOP senators) are saying is, 'You don't matter. Your vote doesn't count.' We'll see about that."

'Creep of corruption'

When the Senate reconvened for the trial's afternoon session, Rep. Andrew Murr, R-Junction, gave the Texas House impeachment managers' opening statement to remove Paxton from office and railed against the embattled attorney general's character.

"Nearly all man can stand adversity, but if you really want to test a man's character, give him power," Murr said."Mr. Paxton has been entrusted with great power. Unfortunately, rather than rise to the occasion, he's revealed his true character.

"And as the overwhelming evidence will show, he is not fit to be the attorney general for the state of Texas."

Murr argued that Paxton tried to advance "economic interests and legal positions" on behalf of former Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, a Paxton campaign donor who was recently indictd on eight federal counts of mortgage fraud.

In pushing back on Paxton's legal team's argument that some of the offenses outlined in the impeachment articles are not crimes, Murr argued that an impeachable offense is not only defined by criminal conduct as impeachment serves for "protecting the state, not punishing the offender."

Calling Paxton's actions a "creep of corruption" in his roughly 20-minute opening, Murr said that the attorney general's alleged extramartial affair, a home remodel possiby funded by Paul and the steps Paxton took to conceal his misconduct are reason to disqualify him from office.

"And the witnesses and the evidence will show and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he should be removed from office and prevented from ever holding a position of trust in the state of Texas again," Murr said.

Paxton's attorneys, Tony Buzbee and Dan Cogdell, shot back in a nearly hourlong opening statement, using almost all the time allowed by the court for such statements.

Ken Paxton impeachment trial: Replay the livestream from day one.

Buzbee, who pleaded not guilty on behalf of Paxton and drew an objection from prosecutor Rusty Hardin earlier in the day, emphatically denied the allegations against Paxton, saying no misconduct occurred.

"I believe that no matter your party affiliation, and no matter where you stand now, you will conclude what I have concluded: that there is nothing to this," Buzbee said.

Buzbee argued that the defense will show that the Paxtons — Ken and his wife, Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney — paid for their own home remodel, not Paul, and struggled in dealing with insurance agents throughout the process.

He also pushed against claims that Paxton used a burner phone and that he communicated through encrypted messaging services and secret email accounts, saying the account was necessary for a trip to China.

Buzbee also spent time challenging the bias of the senators, compelling them not to have a predetermined notion of how they are going to vote before the evidence has been fully presented.

"Have you already decided based on what is politically expedient? Or what's best for you personally? Or is it even possible to get a fair hearing? Buzbee asked. "Especially after this case has been tried in the press. Ken Paxton has been convicted in the press based on ignorance, innuendo and outright lies."

Voicing frustration with House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, and the impeachment process in the House, Buzbee raised concerns about the weaponization of the impeachment process, saying regardless of outcome the trial will affect the future of Texas politics.

"There's nothing here to support impeachment. Nothing," he said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas AG Ken Paxton pleads not guilty as impeachment trial begins