Ken Paxton - The Idiot AG of Texas

Look who is going to be disbarred. So are you allowed to hold the Texas AG position if you are not legally allowed to practice law?

Ken Paxton Could Be Disbarred as Money Pours Into His Impeachment Fight
Problems pile on to the impeached Texas attorney general
https://www.austinchronicle.com/dai...ed-as-money-pours-into-his-impeachment-fight/

Fourteen attorneys, including three former presidents of the Texas State Bar, are asking that Ken Paxton be stripped of his law license.

The group is calling on the bar to investigate the bribery, aggravated perjury, and racketeering charges against the state’s top attorney that were made public in May, when the Texas House of Representatives voted to impeach him. “Paxton‘s conduct is so egregious that the State Bar has no real option other than moving forward with the inquiry into disbarring him,” said Jim Harrington, the retired founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project and one of the attorneys seeking to end Paxton’s law career. “None of us are above the law. The bar must, for its own integrity, adhere to this fundamental principle.”

Paxton’s trial in the Senate is scheduled to begin on Sept. 5 and Harrington hopes the AG is convicted. “He’s just so sleazy, but I’m not very optimistic,” Harrington said. “There’s a lot of money floating around right now.”

Some of that money is the $3 million that Paxton’s billionaire supporters, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, gave Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick in July through their PAC, Defend Texas Liberty. As reported in the Texas Tribune and elsewhere, $1 million of the money is an outright gift. The other $2 million is a loan that may or may not have to be repaid, perhaps depending on Patrick’s performance during the impeachment.

“That money is just right out there in everyone's face,” Harrington said. “In another country we would call it corruption. Here, we call it access.”

Alongside the carrot (the money), Defend Texas Liberty is brandishing a stick: it is openly threatening Republican lawmakers. Jonathan Stickland, who runs the PAC, has loudly proclaimed that any Republican who votes for impeachment is “risking their entire political career.” On Aug. 22, he went on the Steve Bannon show and said that Defend Texas Liberty is spending millions on Paxton. Talk then turned to some of the very conservative Republican senators who will decide the AG’s fate, including Bryan Hughes, Kelly Hancock, Charles Schwertner, Charles Perry, Drew Springer, and Mayes Middleton.

“We're gonna make these six famous in the days ahead,” Bannon said.
 
'Crazy' and 'insane': Whistleblower testifies Ken Paxton ordered staff to investigate feds
https://www.rawstory.com/ken-paxton-mark-penley/

A whistleblower testifying in Ken Paxton's impeachment trial revealed that the Texas attorney general ordered his staff to investigate federal agents on behalf of a friend.

On Monday, former staffer Mark Penley told the impeachment jurors that he thought Paxton's favor for businessman Nate Paul was "insane." Penley said Paxton wanted investigations of agencies involved in a raid on Paul's home.

"[Staffer] David Maxwell and I saw no merit to the complaint," Penley explained. "We saw no state interest. We saw no evidence of a state crime violation."

"Speaking for myself, I thought it was crazy, and I was hoping the Attorney General would drop it," he continued.

An impeachment prosecutor asked Penley to explain his thinking.

"The idea that the state of Texas Attorney General's office would go investigate the federal courthouse, investigate federal agents and also state agents that were task force officers on the raid, and those were agents from the DPS and the State Securities Board, that we would investigate a federal magistrate judge and federal prosecutors was insane," he remarked.

Watch the video below or at this link.
 
'Something is rotten in Texas': Experts pounce on Ken Paxton corruption acquittal
https://www.rawstory.com/ken-paxton-reactions/

After the Texas Senate acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton of 16 articles of impeachment on Saturday, legal experts were quick to react.

Paxton, a Republican, was accused of corruption and bribery, and narrowly escaped being booted from office by his fellow GOPers. Paxton had the support of former president Trump and other far-right political figures.

Former prosecutor Joyce Vance noted that Paxton "remains under indictment in a trial delayed years by procedural motions."

"In Texas, partisanship trumps GOP commitment to ethics in governance as state AG Ken Paxton is acquitted on all charges in his impeachment," the analyst said.

Political consultant David Axelrod, who served as chief strategist for Barack Obama's presidential campaigns, claimed the result "will give Trump some small encouragement."

"Despite evidence of blatant corruption, his ally, The TX AG, is acquitted in an a impeachment trial by a Republican-dominated state senate in Texas," the commentator added.

MSNBC host and legal contributor Katie Phang also said, "Something is rotten in Texas…" She added "Yes, I know. An evergreen tweet."

Former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega simply said, "Wow. Sad to hear..."

Even tennis legend Martina Navratilova chimed in on the high-profile vote: "This a--wipe is guilty as sin but the absolutely corrupt Texas GOP doesn’t care! This guy should be in prison. Unreal."
 
How GOP pressured Texas senators over Paxton's impeachment trial
https://www.axios.com/2023/09/17/ken-paxton-texas-impeachment-gop

Following a secret campaign coordinated by top Trump allies, Texas state senators yesterday acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton of all impeachment charges, allowing him to return to his post.
  • Why it matters: The allegations against Paxton, a close ally of former President Trump, bitterly divided the Texas GOP, Jay R. Jordan of Axios Houston and Nicole Cobler of Axios Austin report.
Behind the scenes: National Republicans organized an under-the-radar campaign of outside conservative pressure on the Texas senators designed to neutralize mainstream media coverage, top strategists tell me.
  • This outside unofficial team operated independently of the Paxton legal operation — like "a super PAC without the money," a top GOP strategist said.
  • Pro-Paxton forces also paid social media influencers to defend the attorney general.
The team had a "very well-defined target audience … no different than a confirmation battle," the strategist said.
  • After winning,Paxton tweeted his thanks to the conservative news outlet National Pulse, a valued player in the under-the-radar drive.
Catch me up: Senators weighed whether Paxton illegally used his office to benefit an Austin real estate developer, and improperly fired some of his top deputies who reported him to the FBI and other agencies.
  • Despite an overwhelming majority of House Republicans voting to impeach Paxton in May, only two of 18 Republican senators voted to convict Paxton.
So ... how did that happen?

"We didn't care what the MSM (mainstream media) said," the top GOP strategist said.
  • "We basically ignored them from start to finish. Goal was to fire up the grassroots. A story in National Pulse, Post Millennial and similar publications was more valuable than any harm an A1 NYT story could do."
What we're hearing: It was made clear to Texas GOP senators that they'd face a very well-funded primary opponent in their next election if they voted to impeach.
  • The two senators who voted to convict, Kelly Hancock and Robert Nichols, don't face re-election until 2026.
How it worked: Steve Bannon was a big Paxton backer on his WarRoom podcast.
  • Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk was vital, the strategist said: "He had his people posting senators' office numbers and was giving them out on his show. Driving the senators absolutely crazy."
  • A few days before the vote, Trump called Paxton "one of the TOUGHEST & BEST Attorney Generals in the Country" and after the vote, Trump congratulated Paxton on his "Texas sized VICTORY."
  • A day earlier, Paxton posted: "I'm heading to Maine next week to sit down with @TuckerCarlson."
  • Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, also a Trump ally who presided over the trial, received $3 million this summer from a pro-Paxton group called Defend Texas Liberty PAC.
Worth noting: Minutes after the trial was over, Patrick lambasted the impeachment, calling it a waste of time and money, and said he would order a state audit into the costs.
  • Dade Phelan, the Republican House speaker, fired back, saying he found it "deeply concerning" that Patrick "would conclude by confessing his bias. ... The inescapable conclusion is that today's outcome appears to have been orchestrated from the start, cheating the people of Texas of justice."
 
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