Key takeaways from Texas Senate’s acquittal of AG Paxton’s corruption charges

John Yang:

Good evening, I'm John Yang. This afternoon the Republican controlled Texas State Senate voted largely along party lines not to remove embattled State Attorney General Ken Paxton from office. The Texas House had overwhelmingly voted to impeach him earlier this year.

The Senate sat as a jury in the trial on charges the House had brought and had been deliberating since Friday. The Senate acquitted Paxton on 16 separate articles of impeachment, including bribery, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and abuse of the public trust. The charges set on Paxton's relationship with a wealthy donor. Afterward, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said it was all just politics.

Gov. Dan Patrick (R) Texas: Because vote will be the vote you're remembered for most. Our members already knew that. I'd have known that for the last three months. If only the House members who voted for impeachment would have followed that instruction in the House, we may not have been here.

In the House to vote to send the articles of impeachment against the Attorney General to the Senate happened in only a few days, with virtually no time for 150 members to even study the articles.

John Yang:

Paxton still faces a trial on felony securities fraud and an FBI investigation. Austin American-Statesman investigative reporter Tony Plohetski is covering all of this. Tony, were you surprised by what happened this afternoon? Or did you expect this?

Tony Plohetski, Austin American-Stateman:

We've known from day one that it was going to be a high hurdle to get this impeachment process across the finish line. And what I mean by that is that we've always assumed that well, Democrats would generally vote in favor of those articles of impeachment.

So when you look at it, it was really a trial for nine Texas senators. That was the number needed to join with the Democrats to complete the impeachment process and to convict in Paxton on those articles. So given the fact that it was such a high burden to do that, I think on the ground here in Texas, particularly as we saw politics and the political machinery fire up, I think in many ways, it is not a surprise to see the outcome that we saw this afternoon.

John Yang:

This afternoon, Mr. Paxton issued a statement he blamed President Biden and he blamed the Republican Speaker of the Texas House, who he called a liberal for all this saying it's just politics. But these were serious charges, weren't they?

Tony Plohetski:

They were charges that included bribery, misusing his office, and this all dates back to allegations that were brought forward by a whistleblower than the fall of 2020. People who sat at the right hand of Ken Paxton, top attorneys in his own agency, who share the same Christian conservative values wanted to work side by side with Ken Paxton to push those values and to push that agenda forward.

But again, what we saw in the end is that there is this feeling that House impeachment managers and prosecutors didn't really prove their case in terms of the contention that yes, and Paxton did accept a bribe, he did benefit from helping a wealthy Austin investor who was also one of his campaign contributors.

John Yang:

So the evidence just wasn't there during the trial?

Tony Plohetski:

That seems to be the contention. It is noteworthy that as the trial was going on, the senators who were the jurors in this case were prohibited from making public statements. There was a gag order that had been in place for weeks.

And so now we are going about the process of really getting their feedback, getting their public statement what might they say, with regard to how they voted and why they did or did not vote the way they did.

John Yang:

Ken Paxton's influence extends beyond the borders of the state of Texas. He's been a thorn in the side of Democratic presidents a strong ally of Donald Trump. How is this going to affect his influence? How does this affect his standing?

Tony Plohetski:

In the minds of many political scientists, this is going to give him Paxton a broad license to double down on some of the deeply Christian conservative far right agenda here in Texas. But again, beyond and Ken Paxton, speaking to that himself and his statement today, saying that the Biden administration should get ready that he will continue to target their agendas and their policies, taking his work here in Texas, and putting it on a national stage.

John Yang:

And politics aside, what's ahead for Ken Paxton, in terms of courtrooms?

Tony Plohetski:

Well, certainly for Ken Paxton, this is a joyous day, a monumental day, a day of victory for him. But as you mentioned, Ken Paxton is far from out of the woods and far from being done in the courtroom. There are those three state security felony fraud charges that he is still facing that is happening in Houston and a judge in Harris County has said that she wants to try to get this case moving forward. It goes back eight years.

But in addition to that, we know through our own reporting that there is an ongoing federal investigation into Ken Paxton concerning the same allegations or essentially the same allegations. And then last but not least, Ken Paxton is the subject of to ongoing complaints by the State Bar of Texas and whether or not he violated the terms of his license, his law license here in the state.

John Yang:

Tony Plohetski of the Austin American-Statesman. Thank you very much.

Tony Plohetski:

Thanks for having me.