AUSTIN, Texas – Attorney Tony Buzbee, the lead attorney representing Attorney General Ken Paxton in his upcoming impeachment trial in the Texas Senate, said the charges against Paxton are false.
“Let me be clear because there have been some tweets and so forth,” said Buzbee, a personal injury attorney who lost a race for mayor of Houston in 2019. “The articles of impeachment that the Chamber are nonsense. The accusations are false. They are false.”
What you need to know
The Texas House flatly charged Attorney General Ken Paxton with 21 articles of impeachment
Paxton has been removed from office, pending trial in the Texas Senate. The impeachment trial, in which members of the Senate will serve as a jury, is expected to begin on August 26 at the latest.
Paxton’s legal team argues the articles of impeachment are poorly worded and offer no due process to Paxton
Nearly a decade ago, Buzbee led the legal team defending then-Gov. Rick Perry against charges of abuse of power, charges that were eventually dismissed. Now Buzbee, along with criminal defense attorney Dan Cogdell, will defend Paxton against 21 articles of impeachment. Buzbee called the articles of impeachment “hearsay after hearsay,” “an ugly smear campaign” and “provably false.”
“No prosecutor, no legitimate prosecutor, no credible prosecutor would even try to get a grand jury indictment based on this kind of insanity,” Buzbee said. “You know, the old saying goes that you can impeach a ham sandwich in the state of Texas. With this evidence, you couldn’t even impeach a ham sandwich.”
If Buzbee’s comments sound exaggerated, they only match the bravado displayed by two well-known lawyers the Texas House hired a week ago to try Paxton’s impeachment case in the Texas Senate. In comments to WFAA reporter Jason Whitely, attorney Rusty Hardin said the evidence against Paxton is far worse than the public knows. Attorney Dick DeGuerin called the House’s evidence “strong as horseradish.”
“(This case) is about cleaning up the justice system, getting out someone who doesn’t respect it and abuses it, as the evidence shows Paxton has done in this case,” said DeGuerin, who has represented politicians including former . US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
Cogdell, who has been representing Paxton in a pending securities impeachment case, had his own set of arguments, saying House Investigative Committee Chairman Andrew Murr, R-Junction, had DeGuerin and Hardin in the audience after the impeachment vote as the long – time lawyers were the king and queen of their institute. Cogdell dismissed the House’s claims that the Paxton case was about justice, not politics.
“To say that this case is not about politics has the credibility, the credibility and the sincerity of the fellow who is trying to convince his wife to go to the bar to get food,” Cogdell told reporters. “‘It’s not about the naked women. It’s about the food. Nonsense.”
Paxton’s lawyers did not address some of the more complicated charges against the attorney general, which involve Paxton’s actions to benefit his financial backer, Austin developer Nate Paul. They addressed an impeachment charge that Paul paid for improvements to Paxton’s residence in Austin, offering a receipt showing that Paxton had paid for his renovations.
“That’s the kind of evidence that we tried to give them once we heard that this nonsense was going on,” said Buzbee, who called the evidence offered by the Chamber hearsay. “When General Paxton’s team found out and went over there and said, ‘Look, we’ve got documents for you. We would like them to listen to us’, and they are prevented from doing so? Then every elected official in the state is at risk if things are allowed to go this way.”
Similar concerns about the process were raised in the House when the impeachment vote took place on May 27. Murr then said it was the House’s duty to act as the grand jury to determine whether the evidence was sufficient. The actual merits of the case will be determined during the Senate trial, Murr said.
Click the video link above to learn more about the attorneys defending and prosecuting Paxton, including a one-on-one interview with DeGuerin.
