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Kenny Paxton/Dave P's Impeachment Game Day Thread


atomheartbevo

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The Texas Tribune and Texas Lawyer are not giving Ryan Vassar terrible reviews.

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/07/ken-paxton-impeachment-trial-live-updates/

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/ken-paxton-impeachment-affair-corruption-witnesses

Texas Monthly even has a heading reading “Ryan Vassar holds his own against Mitch Little.”

 

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The thing I can't seem to understand is how any of this bickering with the witnesses matters to the facts. The argument I heard over and over was that the police report was somehow premature. But.....so what?

I heard Little repeat this line about how Paxton, as the "elected official" with a whopping 4 million votes (in a state of nearly 30 million), could "do whatever he wanted" or "read whatever file he wanted." Which is only half true.

Sure, in a vacuum, those are all things the AG has the power to do. But we're not in a vacuum.  If the AG is aware that he is using the public office to benefit a private person, and if it's illegal to use public resources for the benefit of a private person, then those acts coupled with that awareness makes those official acts illegal. And of course it also makes Little's premise technically false. Paxton could only do lawful things, which is not as broad as "whatever he wanted."

If someone is awake on the House Managers side, I hope they make it clear that none of these exaggerated complaints, about how rude it is not to give the subject of a potential criminal investigation a heads-up about the potential investigation, do anything to change the likelihood that each of the allegations made in the articles of impeachment are, without any shadow of a doubt, true.

Edited by chainsaw
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1 hour ago, Horndog said:

Has anyone actually seen the rules they adopted? Is it possible for the Senate to convict and then DP override that and order acquittal based on "insufficient evidence"?

I think, based on this week, Patrick is siding with the House and wants Paxton gone. Instead of just constantly overruling in favor of Rusty, he could be consulting with his legal advisors every time there is an objection and helping run the clock out somewhat, and he could allow the objections to stand. But I'm one of the 54% of Surly that's not a lawyer, so...

There are four other charges that aren't currently being handled in this trial (forgot what they were), but I doubt they will be needed.

Regardless of what happens, it's being proven and made explicitly clear that Paxton was in deep with Nate Paul, and when Nate Paul's federal stuff gets out into the open, Paxton will be pretty tarnished. I think he's going to be primaried either way - this trial is providing all of the ammo needed for another Republican to beat him in the primaries, and Abbott picked a temporary AG that could probably do the trick. A decent Republican challenger will have enough money and backing to travel the state asking why Paxton was doing what Nate Paul wanted him to, and Paxton cannot have people googling Nate Paul and asking why Nate Paul was able to use the AG's office to potentially go after his enemies.

Edited by atomheartbevo
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I think, based on this week, Patrick is siding with the House and wants Paxton gone. Instead of just constantly overruling in favor of Rusty, he could be consulting with his legal advisors every time there is an objection and helping run the clock out somewhat, and he could allow the objections to stand. But I'm one of the 54% of Surly that's not a lawyer, so...
There are four other charges that aren't currently being handled in this trial (forgot what they were), but I doubt they will be needed.
Regardless of what happens, it's being proven and made explicitly clear that Paxton was in deep with Nate Paul, and when Nate Paul's federal stuff gets out into the open, Paxton will be pretty tarnished. I think he's going to be primaried either way - this trial is providing all of the ammo needed for another Republican to beat him in the primaries, and Abbott picked a temporary AG that could probably do the trick. A decent Republican challenger will have enough money and backing to travel the state asking why Paxton was doing what Nate Paul wanted him to, and Paxton cannot have people googling Nate Paul and asking why Nate Paul was able to use the AG's office to potentially go after his enemies.

If Paxton survives this trial, there is a 0.0% chance he gets primaried. The base loves him, he can’t be beaten.
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2 hours ago, Horndog said:

Has anyone actually seen the rules they adopted? Is it possible for the Senate to convict and then DP override that and order acquittal based on "insufficient evidence"?

I was about to scold you for conjuring up such a ridiculous outcome, but then I remembered the timeline.

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3 hours ago, Horndog said:

Has anyone actually seen the rules they adopted? Is it possible for the Senate to convict and then DP override that and order acquittal based on "insufficient evidence"?

https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/881/billtext/html/SR00035I.htm

They do not seem to authorize granting of anything akin to a JNOV/JMOL

Edited by TwiceHorn
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9 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

If Paxton survives this trial, there is a 0.0% chance he gets primaried. The base loves him, he can’t be beaten.

Wrong.  If he survives the trial but gets a federal indictment on top of his pending state securities fraud case, there is a 0.000001% chance he gets primaried.

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16 minutes ago, South Austin said:

So who else things Ryan Vassar got beaten with a rubber hose last night?

So I watched the first two and a half days of trial, but only caught some of the initial Vassar stuff. What's the issue with him?

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8 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

So I watched the first two and a half days of trial, but only caught some of the initial Vassar stuff. What's the issue with him?

Beyond the disorganized snoozefest of Rusty Hardin's direct, he was an incredibly weak witness, and a poor follow up to Bangert who was by all accounts very strong for the prosecution and handled Ralph Macchio's cross well.  While there was little substance to the testimony elicited from Vassar on cross, his meekness and inability to handle some of the questions won the defense a fair amount of style points, in my opinion.  And for jurors who get lost in the weeds and don't follow substance, style points can matter.

Edited by South Austin
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2 minutes ago, South Austin said:

So he's reading through text messages where they're all saying mean things about colleagues at the AG's office.  Highly relevant, Mitch.

The alternative is that he try to prove that Paxton didn't do what everybody said he did.  Much easier to just read text messages of people bitching about colleagues.

If they get Nate Paul on the stand, I'd like to see him try and wreck Paul.

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Just now, atomheartbevo said:

The alternative is that he try to prove that Paxton didn't do what everybody said he did.  Much easier to just read text messages of people bitching about colleagues.

If they get Nate Paul on the stand, I'd like to see him try and wreck Paul.

No way in hell he's allowed to do anything but plead the fifth

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Okay, this is getting just silly.  Spending time airing out private texts dissing co-workers that have nothing to do with the charges.  I'm hoping the jurors are thinking to themselves, "Shit, I say these kinds of things about my colleagues and constituents all the time.  Big fucking deal."

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So people were excited and wanted to prosecute KP and that's a bad thing?  Why isn't Vassar smart enough to say "of course we were excited to ensure this dude was prosecuted.  yes it was gallows humor.  Doesn't make KP less of a guilty shithead."

 

..... and wtf just happened?

Edited by A-Tex Devil
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Just now, A-Tex Devil said:

So people were excited and wanted to prosecute KP and that's a bad thing?  Why isn't Vassar smart enough to say "of course we were excited to ensure this dude was prosecuted.  yes it was gallows humor.  Doesn't make KP less of a guilty shithead."

Yeah, it's all grandstanding

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5 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

If Little is trying to make the witness less likeable he's doing a bad job.

Yeah, Vassar's doing better so far.  These texts just make him seem more human, doing something we all do, and he's not apologizing for the comments and is just acknowledging them for what they are.

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1 minute ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Some sort of deal? Wasn't there an article about how if this goes more than a couple of days he is toast but they expected KP to resign?

I highly doubt that.  His defense team would be in the know and any deal would've been announced before they started today's proceedings rather than 30 minutes in to a discussion about the Ken Paxton text slam party.

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4 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

No one on Twitter seems to know either. 

2 minutes ago, South Austin said:

I mean, if we all want to reach, Paxton decided to resign last night, but told his attorneys to first get into evidence the texts showing his former underlings all saying mean and disloyal things about him, and once that was done, he'd make the call.

Fuck if I know.

Normally social media lawyers are full of hot takes.  Everybody is just confused.

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From the Texas Tribune:

Quote

A half-hour into Vassar’s testimony, Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, approached Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — who is presiding over the trial — and whispered in his ear before exiting the Senate floor. Patrick announced the proceedings would pause for 30 minutes.

Miles’ chief of staff said he had no information to share about why the senator left the proceedings. But according to an NPR reporter, Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Rep. Briscoe Cain told reporters that there was no “health or safety risk, but would not provide details.”

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/08/ken-paxton-impeachment-trial-live-updates/

My guess is a shart.

Edited by South Austin
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