Ken Paxton's impeachment trial: Day 2 takeaways
AUSTIN (CBSNewsTexas.com) - The impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton continued Wednesday with more witness testimony and tense cross-examination, but without the attorney general himself.
Here are some of the takeaways from day two:
Paxton stays away
On the first day of the impeachment trial, Attorney General Ken Paxton was present in the morning to plead not guilty to the 16 articles he's facing. But when the trial reconvened after the lunch break, he was gone.
And he didn't come back on Wednesday.
Privilege objection withdrawn
Wednesday morning, Paxton's defense withdrew objections based on client-attorney privilege.
Tuesday afternoon, the defense argued communication between Paxton and his former deputies was protected by attorney-client privilege and, therefore off limits. This could have severely limited the testimony of former deputies.
Witness explains why he believes Paxton's alleged affair is relevant
At one point during the impeachment trial, Rusty Hardin, who's representing the House impeachment managers in the case, asked the first witness Jeff Mateer, a former top deputy at the attorney general's office and a whistleblower, why he believes allegations of Paxton's affair are relevant to this case.
Mateer said it answers "the why" of questions he'd been asking himself about the nature of Paxton's relationship with Austin real estate developer and donor Nate Paul.
"It answered one of the questions that I kept struggling with," Mateer said. "Why would General Paxton jeopardize all the great work that we had been doing in The Office of the Attorney General? Why would he be engaged in these activities on behalf of one person?"
Paul is accused of helping cover up the affair and hiring the alleged mistress.
'You were staging a coup, weren't you?'
The cross-examination of Mateer was tense at times. Mateer testified that he grew increasingly concerned in 2020 about Paxton's relationship with Paul.
Paxton's lawyer Tony Buzbee challenged him during questioning, accusing him of jumping to conclusions and running to the FBI instead of having a conversation with the attorney general.
At one point, Buzbee accused Mateer of being involved in a coup.
Second witness takes the stand
After hours on the witness stand, Mateer was excused, and a second witness was called in.
Like Mateer, Ryan Bangert formerly served as a top deputy at the attorney general's office and is also one of the eight whistleblowers.
During his testimony, he said he grew concerned about how many times he was asked to look into a matter involving Paul while at the attorney general's office.
After hours of tense questioning, there was a moment of laughter in the Senate chamber during Bangert's testimony. It came when Hardin mistakenly said "lieutenant governor" instead of "attorney general".
Watch a clip of that moment below:
Bangert's testimony continues Thursday morning. Be sure to catch the trial live on our YouTube page beginning at 9 a.m.
