Ken Paxton pleads NOT GUILTY to impeachment charges: Texas AG prepares for grilling on an affair, ‘bribes,’ taxpayer-funded Caribbean vacations and coconut cakes

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 20 impeachment articles alleging corruption and abuse of public trust at the start of a historic trial.

It puts Republicans in an awkward position as they decide whether to remove Paxton from office or support one of former President Donald Trump’s staunchest supporters.

Paxton, 60, has been suspended since the House of Representatives voted to impeach him in May on charges that he used his office to help a major donor.

‘Mr. Paxton should be removed from office for failing to protect the state and instead using his elected office for his own benefit,” said Republican state Rep. General led.

Paxton, following his political patron, has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and retains the support of the far right.

But despite the intense publicity surrounding the case, the day unfolded in front of a public gallery marked by empty rows.

And Republican senators, who are the “jury” in the case, have rejected Paxton’s numerous requests that the charges be dropped.

“In Texas, we demand more from our officials than just avoid being a criminal,” Murr said.

Paxton faces the first Texas impeachment trial in nearly half a century.

The broad allegations have been known since 2020, when eight of Paxton’s top deputies took their concerns to the FBI.

Paxton is accused of using his office to help Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, who was charged this summer with making false statements to a bank to secure more than $170 million in loans.

The whistleblowers, all conservatives, said Paxton ignored their recommendation and hired an outside attorney to investigate the FBI’s concerns about Paul.

They also accused Paxton of pressuring them to help Paul.

In exchange, Paul allegedly hired a former aide to a Republican senator with whom Paxton admitted to having an affair, and funded renovations to one of the attorney general’s properties, a million-dollar house in Austin.

Texan real estate developer Nate Paul, 36, was charged last month with eight counts of making false statements while seeking loans from mortgage lenders in 2017 and 2018.

Paxton is a close ally of Trump. He has spoken at Trump rallies and posted a photo of him playing golf with the former president in Florida in 2021

Paxton, right, is hugged by his wife State Senator Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, before the impeachment trial

Paxton had some supporters in the public gallery, but it was mostly empty

When the impeachment articles were formally read, Paxton’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, answered the charges by calling them untrue or incorrect and saying his client pleaded not guilty.

He said the attorney general gave “nothing of substance” to Paul, describing the proceedings as an attempt to overturn the will of voters.

Still, the process will raise at least some embarrassing questions.

Paul and Laura Olson, with whom Paxton allegedly had an affair, are on the prosecution’s witness list, according to the Dallas Morning News.

They can also call key donors and Republicans, including his top challengers George P. Bush and Eva Gorman, as well as high-profile party strategist and Paxton critic Karl Rove.

Witnesses will be sworn in Wednesday during the impeachment trial in the Senate chamber

Questions may also shed light on his extensive foreign travels.

Records obtained by the Associated Press show that after winning the Republican primary, he spent two months flying to cities in the Caribbean and Europe. The trips cost taxpayers $91,000 for his security credentials, and it’s unclear who paid for Paxton’s trip.

In the past year, he made more international trips than the governor and lieutenant governor of Texas combined. The trip included previously unreported trips to Qatar to watch the World Cup.

Then there is the coconut cake that is sent to the attorney general’s office by the Texan supermarket chain HEB around Christmas.

The staff had always shared the pie, until Paxton was chosen.

A former employee said staff were told not to touch it because it was sent for Paxton’s birthday (December 23). Another said Paxton had it brought to a staff luncheon but it was never served.

Paxton’s office gift logs say it was worth $45.

A conviction requires a two-thirds majority — or 21 senators — which means that if all twelve Senate Democrats vote against Paxton, they still need at least nine of the nineteen Republicans to join them.