Impeachment Push Sputters with House
Blunder after Ex-Lover Takes the Fifth
Capitol Inside
September 13, 2023
Attorney Ken Paxton's impeachment trial took another wild turn on Wednesday night when Texas House prosecutors ended their case against him prematurely in an apparent lapse after the state lawyer's former lover Laura Olson invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify.
Then shortly after Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick announced that Olson would be unavailable to testify - lead House lawyer Rusty Hardin informed the court abruptly that the House was resting its case. The legendary Houston attorney admitted that he'd made a mistake and sought to reverse the move without success when Patrick denied him the opportunity to reopen it.
Olson's no-show deprived the trial its most sensational and highly-anticipated moment in a Senate chamber where the tensions could have been at an all-time high with an ex-mistress on the witness stand and GOP State Senator Angela Paxton as the AG's longtime wife in the audience on the floor not far away. But Olson's testimony could have given House managers their last realistic shot to establish that Paxton was selling his influence to Nate Paul in exchange for hiring Olson at his private company after she was fired by a GOP state senator amid revelations of the affair.
The lawyers for the House thought they had the glue for a quid pro quo for a bribe with former Paxton aide Drew Wicker's testimony earlier Wednesday about a kitchen remodeling project at the attorney general's home in the affluent Austin neighborhood of Tarrytown. Wicker said he suspected that Paul foot the bill for renovations after hearing the contractor say that he discussed the project with him several times during a visit to the Paxton's house.
But defense attorney Tony Buzbee produced records that made it appear that the AG and wife paid for the same counter top that Wicker presumed to be a gift from Paul. Wicker - under intense questioning from Buzbee - acknowledged that he didn't really know who picked up the tab for the renovations despite widespread perceptions that Paul had been the source of the funding.
That appeared to leave with the prosecution with a massive body of circumstantial evidence and no hard proof to seal the deal. House lawyers tried to overcome the lack of direct evidence with former Paxton assistant Blake Brickman as the seventh whistleblower on the stand before Olson's expected appearance late this afternoon. Brickman testified that he and other former assistants provided the FBI with sufficient evidence to pursue bribery charges against Paxton with a probe that the federal agency launched but never appeared to take seriously.
But the lack of direct evidence has made it easy for Buzbee and other defense lawyers to create an ocean if doubt that's given the Senate's 19 Republicans an easy out a time when a vote to convict Paxton could spark the wrath of the right and backfire among primary voters. While the House has made it look like the Texas AG is a crooked politician who abused his office in ways that are mind-boggling, the Senate may be prone to say that the prosecution simply failed to prove its case barring unforeseen developments.
The impeachment trial could have a verdict on Thursday after the bizarre ending to day seven.
more to come ... |
