Paxon Impeachment Trial

Mr. president, senators today is an important day on this day in 1836 Sam Houston who's Bible you used for your oaths today was elected president of the Republic of Texas. Today is also an important day because we begin this impeachment trial while impeachment is rare the drafters of our state constitution recognize that there are times when this extraordinary remedy is needed to protect the state and its citizens from the public office holder who has abused the power of his office by putting self-interest above that of the people of Texas the drafters concluded that this great deliberative body the Texas Senate is best positioned to determine what when this remedy is appropriate earlier this year Mr. Paxton came to the legislature seeking $3.3 million in taxpayer money to settle whistleblower lawsuit Mr. Paxton would not answer any questions about the underlying claims he had successfully blocked any discovery in the case for almost two years and he refused to justify the settlement the house investigated the serious allegations raised by the whistleblowers the house uncovered egregious misconduct and abuse of office by the attorney general of the state of Texas and voted overwhelmingly to prefer articles of impeachment to the Senate This is why we are here the allegations in the articles revealed that the state's top lawyer engaged in conduct designed to advance the economic interests positions of a friend and donor to the detriment of innocent Texans Mr. Paxton turned the keys of the office of attorney general over to Nate Paul so that Mister Paul could use the awesome power of the people's law firm to punish and harass perceived enemies I was raised in rural Texas or a person’s honor is more important than money, where integrity matters, by a family deeply affected by political corruption. This is precisely the type of grave official wrong that our Texas supreme court don't use devices that are created for a different purpose to clean your house it's more likely to break something than make it shine cleaning my house the state of Texas for many years had a favorite quote from Abraham Lincoln “nearly all men can stand adversity but if you really want to test a man's character give him power” 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 Mr. Paxton argues that the Senate should not exercise its constitutional duty to decide whether its conduct merits impeachment because governors were aware of the allegations and still reelected him he claims that the Senate should abide by the alleged will of the voters however this ignores the intent of our framers of the constitution. Impeachment was included in the constitution after the founding fathers debated and rejected the idea that elections could singularly protect the public against abusive office holders in other words drafters agreed that impeachment was and is necessary to protect against abusive officials because it was simply too easy for them to use the powers of their office to conceal the truth until after the next election the concept of the forgiveness doctrine is not in our constitution and does not apply here the courts have made that very clear and even if it did the doctrine presumes that voters know all the facts the voters did not and do not know the whole truth Mr. Paxon went to great lengths to hide his misconduct from the public the evidence will show that he used massive resources of his office to prepare and issue a sham report that allegedly exonerated him the evidence will show that this report contains false and misleading information about the allegations against him and about the whistleblowers themselves and he also lied about the independent nature of this investigation documents will show that he played a key role in drafting that report. The constitution says the Senate has the power and the duty to decide this case and to protect the people of Texas from someone who has violated his oath and has shown he does not respect the law the witnesses and the evidence will show you that Mr. Paxton's conduct merits the exercise of that power 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. Mr. Paxton argues that the articles do not allege impeachable conduct because they do not allege that he committed a crime we do allege that he committed crimes we have detailed the Mr. Paxon received favors including home renovations and helping concealing and continuing an extramarital affair in exchange for the office of attorney general punishing Nate Paul's enemies however we don't have to show some type of quid pro quo to establish that his conduct should result in impeachment. As the Texas Supreme Court made clear regarding the impeachment governor Ferguson 160 years ago. Wrongs justifying impeachment don't have to be crimes. Wrongs justifying impeachment or broader than that because they have the purpose of protecting the state not punishing the offender. Mr. Paxton should be removed from office because he failed to protect the state and instead used the power of his elected office for his own benefit and this was wrong the oath of office that we all took to protect the citizens of state into a pole the laws of this state in this constitution means something it isn't just words on paper literally an oath to God and Mr. Paxon had an obligation not to abuse his office for his own benefit. He betrayed his constituents and the sacred public trust that's been given him and in Texas we require more from our public officials than to merely avoid being a criminal. The witnesses you will hear from our remarkable people until they refused to follow Mr. Paxton wrongful demands. They were his most trusted and hand-picked advisors and they believed in his conservative mission for the office of the attorney general the problem isn't that their commitment to conservative governance changed it is at the end of the day Mr. Paxon wasn't the man they thought he was and he wasn't the man he publicly proclaimed to be. His trusted advisors are not rhinos or part of some deep state storyline they are movement conservatives guided by their faith this witness is really explains step by step having discovered that Mister Paxton grew increasingly intense and passionate about helping his partner Nate Paul escaped civil and criminal legal troubles that he was facing they will describe in chilling detail when they connected the dots of Mr. Paxton's slow creep of corruption the senior staff were outraged when they discovered that Mister Paxton had directed a young inexperienced outside attorney to obtain grand jury subpoenas to harass and interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation. Subpoenas that had been improperly issued to the DPS officers a federal judge, attorneys involved in a civil lawsuit against Nate Paul and even port staff and it's being assault intensely personal information including cell phone and e-mail records. Now, I'm not going to detail in this opening all the allegations against Mr. Paxson. You're aware of any of them you said as a unique jury having known Mr. Paxton and familiar with some of the facts but even a quick summary of some of the evidence that you're going to hear is shock one of Mr. Paxton 's many acts of deceit involved a member of this chamber hey Cortana when the policy of the state was Texas is open for business during COVID Mr. Paxton directed his staff to issue a legal opinion advising that statewide forfeiture sales excuse me statewide foreclosure sales not move forward Mr. Paxton was adamant at the opinion which came to be known as the midnight opinion the issue before the end of the weekend just in time for Nate Paul to use it to avoid a foreclosure sale the following Tuesday this conduct benefited Nete Paul and harmed businesses and people impacted by foreclosure Mr. Paxson also used the power of his office to harm a charity solely to benefit nightfall the office of the attorney general is charged with the responsibility of intervening and lawsuits when it's necessary to assist a charitable organization as you will hear the first and only charitable case Mr. Paxton took a personal interest in was that many foundations lawsuit against Nate Paul's entities as an investor the evidence will show that Mister Paxon directed his office to intervene in the lawsuit and stay the case and allow the AG's office the opportunity to pressure this charity to accept a low ball settlement offer this would have saved Nate Paul millions of dollars the Creek of corruption continues when Nate Paul wanted access to confidential investigation materials related to police raids on his home and businesses to learn what the police knew and how they do it Mr. ball submitted multiple open records requests seeking the full police file even though no police file may be disclosed due to the well established law enforcement exception Mr. Baxter pressured his deputies to authorize the release of this information but in his investigations their contact Mr. Paxton simply did not care that his request to release information to Naipaul would have put police and victims unfortunately the house investigation revealed that Mister Paxton 's relationship with Mr. Paul was far more extensive than even his closest advisors knew over the course of three months Mr. Investigations of their conduct Mr. Paxton simply did not care that his request to release information to Nate Paul would have put police and victims across the state at risk unfortunately the house investigation revealed that Mister Paxton 's relationship with Mr. Paul was far more extensive than even his closest advisors live over the course of three months Mr. Paxton personally met with napalm more than 20 times many times Mr. Paxton would ditch his security detail and they fall even set up a secret Uber account that allowed Mr. Paxton to secretly visit Nate Paul and others to conceal his efforts Mr. Paxton communicated in off the book ways using burner phones encrypted messaging apps and secret e-mail address Mr. Paxson's brazen abuse of the criminal justice division of the office of attorney general is finally will cost 8 senior staff to report him to the police the question that haunts them it should frighten all of us what would have happened if they had not reported him how far would Mr. Paxton have gone and using the power with the attorney general's office to harass and punish his and they pause perceived enemies and hurt innocent Mr. Faxon tried to defend his actions by isolating each event and claiming that standing alone they can't support it you cannot and should not be detached in the vacuum the evidence will show that they are all connected they're all connected from Mr. Patterson and his desire to deliver for his partner may fall Mr. Paxton will also argue that the acts represent differences of opinion on policy or efforts to help a constituent but the witnesses will explain to you and Mr. Paxton 's actions have nothing to do with implementing conservative policy and in fact his efforts violated those very principles Mr. Paxson's senior advisers were fully aware of the dire consequences of reporting into law enforcement retribution would be swift and fish the choice they made to report him to the police was one of the hardest of their lives but they will tell you that there really wasn't a choice at all say it here on this day in 1836 was elected president of a new and free Republic reminder text do right the consequences do right the consequences doing the right thing is sometimes not easy sometimes we must do the right thing in the face of enormous pressure to remain silent the house and the finish is feeling this fresh it's unfair it's wrong the forces that seek to intimidate the Senate you have taken the first steps toward the truth by giving the people who did the right thing the chance to testify despite the attacks that they know will continue to come do the right thing once more witness stand and it will provide the clarity that the house and the Senate is feeling this pressure it's a fair and it's wrong but despite the forces that seek to intimidate the Senate you have taken the first steps toward the truth by giving the people who did the right thing a chance to testify despite the attacks that they know will continue to come won't do the right thing once more and they will take this witness stand and they will provide the clarity that the Senate needs and that the public deserves to find out what was really happening behind closed doors as chair I resolutely give this statement with the support of and on behalf of the board of managers and over half of the Texas House you won't provided us with an hour to make an opening statement but we prefer the yield back the rest of that time so the most important folks that will show up in this room the same witnesses that Mister Paxton has been so desperate to discredit and intimidate and to silence. we are honored to be able to give them their day and this honored and rare court we simply seek justice on behalf of the people of Texas. 總統先生，今天的參議員們是1836年這一天的重要一天，山姆·休斯頓（Sam Houston）今天用聖經宣誓當選為德克薩斯共和國總統。 今天也是一個重要的日子，因為我們開始了彈劾審判，而彈劾很少見我們州憲法的起草者認識到，有時需要這種特殊的補救措施來保護州及其公民免受公職人員的侵害，公職人員濫用職權，將自身利益置於德克薩斯州人民之上，起草者得出結論，德克薩斯州參議院這個偉大的審議機構是今年早些時候，派克斯頓先生來到立法機關，尋求330萬美元的納稅人資金來解決舉報人訴訟。 派克斯頓先生不會回答任何問題 關於潛在的主張，他成功地阻止了該案近兩年的任何發現，他拒絕證明和解的合理性 眾議院調查了舉報人提出的嚴重指控 眾議院發現了德克薩斯州總檢察長令人震驚的不當行為和濫用職權，並以壓倒性多數投票贊成彈劾條款而不是參議院 這就是為什麼我們在這裡 文章中的指控該州的最高律師從事旨在促進朋友和捐助者的經濟利益地位的行為，損害無辜的德克薩斯人 派克斯頓先生將總檢察長辦公室的鑰匙交給內特·保羅，以便保羅先生可以利用人民律師事務所的強大權力來懲罰和騷擾被認為是敵人的敵人。 我在德克薩斯州農村長大，或者一個人的榮譽比錢，在誠信很重要的地方，來自一個深受政治腐敗影響的家庭。這正是我們德克薩斯州最高法院的嚴重官員錯誤類型