AUSTIN, Texas — The lead attorney for suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says the AG will not testify in his upcoming impeachment trial in the state Senate.
Houston attorney Tony Buzbee released a lengthy statement on Monday, July 3, saying that the articles of impeachment against Paxton are "meritless and absurd" and calling the impeachment a "naked attack on Attorney General Paxton by the Texas House using a senior lawyer of the Obama Administration."
Buzbee also claimed that the House denied Paxton "basic constitutional rights."
"Under the Sixth Amendment, the accused has the right to confront witnesses and review the evidence and nature of any allegations against him. However, Speaker [Dade] Phelan’s disciples, who he personally appointed to be House Impeachment Managers, have refused to turn over any evidence at all – even though it has always been provided to the respondent in every other Texas impeachment proceeding," Buzbee said.
"That is why Attorney General Paxton will not dignify the illegal House action by testifying," Buzbee continued. "The House has ignored precedent, denied him an opportunity to prepare his defense, and now wants to ambush him on the floor of the Senate. They had the opportunity to have Attorney General Paxton testify during their sham investigation but refused to do so. We will not bow to their evil, illegal, and unprecedented weaponization of state power in the Senate chamber."
You can read Buzbee's statement in full below:
"Ken Paxton is America’s most conservative and most successful Attorney General. He has won landmark cases in the Supreme Court to stop Joe Biden’s lawlessness and willful disregard of our constitution. But his success in defending religious liberty, the right to life, the Second Amendment, and individual freedoms have made him a target of Democrats and the establishment Republicans who enable them. That is why Attorney General Paxton was impeached by the kangaroo court in the Texas House.
The articles of impeachment are meritless and absurd, and would have never been brought to the House floor or any Texas court in a credible proceeding. As Representative Smithee rightfully noted, the so-called “evidence” against the Attorney General is “hearsay within hearsay within hearsay,” and the General Investigating Committee’s report would not qualify as evidence in any court of law in Texas, the United States, or anywhere else in the developed world.
Instead, this impeachment is a naked attack on Attorney General Paxton by the Texas House using a senior lawyer in the Obama Administration, Biden Justice Department lawyers and their allies in the Texas House. This is about silencing conservatives, eliminating an effective political opponent, and overturning an election.
Furthermore, the House has denied Attorney General Paxton basic constitutional rights. Under the Sixth Amendment, the accused has the right to confront witnesses and review the evidence and nature of any allegations against him. However, Speaker Phelan’s disciples, who he personally appointed to be House Impeachment Managers, have refused to turn over any evidence at all—even though it has always been provided to the respondent in every other Texas impeachment proceeding.
Attorney General Paxton has successfully defended our constitutional rights against Joe Biden’s radical policies and his attack on individual liberty. He respects our constitutional heritage and has a record of defending it. No one should expect Attorney General Paxton now to surrender his own constitutional rights, allowing liberals to set a dangerous precedent that would encourage future kangaroo courts and sham proceedings such as the one brought by the Texas House.
That is why Attorney General Paxton will not dignify the illegal House action by testifying. The House has ignored precedent, denied him an opportunity to prepare his defense, and now wants to ambush him on the floor of the Senate. They had the opportunity to have Attorney General Paxton testify during their sham investigation but refused to do so. We will not bow to their evil, illegal, and unprecedented weaponization of state power in the Senate chamber."
In late May, the Texas House voted to impeach Paxton. Nearly a month later, a special Texas Senate committee adopted the rules of Paxton's impeachment trial and set a start time: 9 a.m. on Sept. 5.