Paxton Impeachment Closing Arguments This Morning

Closing arguments will begin at 9:00 CDT. The fate of democracy is not in the Texas Senate’s hands, but the fate of accountability for elected officials is.

         Welcome to our special coverage of the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton here at Life Its Ownself! Please subscribe and encourage others to do so. Your support inspires me to write and publish regularly. All my content is free, but your paid subscription is a big affirmation. Please let me know how I’m doing by 1) liking, 2) subscribing, 3) sharing with others, and 4) commenting below.

         But first, your moment of Zen … Alert Reader Tom Nuckols points out that yet another iconic image of stage and screen is suggested by the carefully crafted look Laura Olson assembled so that she could take the Fifth Amendment during Wednesday’s impeachment hearing. Behold, Anjelica Huston in Grifters!

Friday, September 15, 2023

         (The Trans-Pecos) – Day Eight of the impeachment trial of Ken Paxton, the state’s Twice-Indicted, Once-Impeached, Suspended and Disgraced Attorney General (maybe he can put that on his letterhead) has come and gone. The parties have rested, and this morning will give final arguments, with one hour allotted to each side. If you’ve watched nothing else of this trial – and you would be a better person if you hadn’t – tune in to the livestream from the Senate or any of the many media outlets sharing it. The historic, once-in-a-century fun begins at 9;00 a.m.

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         Day Eight was the opportunity for the defense to knock over all the carefully placed dominoes the House managers lawyers’ had arranged over the previous seven days. They put on four witnesses, all current employees of the OAG. (Apparently, actual independent, unbiased defenders of Ken Paxton are in short supply.)

         As Your Humble Correspondent drove through the undulating hills and buttes of the western Hill Country into the magnificent Chihuahuan desert of the Trans-Pecos, both the radio livestream and his interest level ebbed and flowed, and so I can’t report to you on the details of the testimony. I commend to you some excellent reporting by the Austin American-Statesman, the Dallas Morning News,  the Houston Chronicle, and of course the Texas Tribune. And kudos to the Tribune for not putting its coverage behind a paywall as the others have done.

         What I did gather as I listened intermittently was that, with the exception of Article IV, the alleged improper handover of an FBI file to Nate Paul, the defense witnesses did not rebut any of the crucial charges against Paxton – the interference in the Mitte litigation, the crime spree that Brandon Cammack’s hiring precipitated, the “midnight letter” drafted to prevent foreclosure of Nate Paul properties. Often, the defenses were technical: did Paxton have authority to sign a contract with Cammack? Yes, but was it proper to then make Cammack a governmental agent of Nate Paul’s business entanglements?

         I suspect the defense team will focus on a lot of these issues, and on technical errors in the Articles of Impeachment – the kerfuffle of whether Cammack was a “special prosecutor” or a “prosecutor pro tem” is a good example. What the House managers need to do is keep the senators’ eyes on the ball – on Paxton’s increasingly improper interventions in the business of the OAG on behalf of Nate Paul.

Programming Note:

         Beginning at 9:00, I will host a Chat in the Substack app for anyone who wants to follow along and comment. If you do not have the app, you can get it here on Apple or here on Google. Please join for a lively discussion of the closing arguments!