(C) Texas Tribune This story was originally published by Texas Tribune and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Blast: It all comes out in the quash [1] [] Date: 2023-07 TEAM PAXTON MOVES TO STRIKE Attorneys for suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton have finally done what we all knew was coming, filing a motion to quash the articles of impeachment. Paxton’s counsel is asking for a “bill of particulars,” including the dates or approximate dates of important events and references to penal codes or other statutes relevant to the accusations he’s facing. For each of the 16 articles of impeachment the trial will initially address, Team Paxton has also requested details on each of the allegations, like identifying the employees House managers say Paxton had act on his behalf and the specific benefits and harms made as a result of Paxton’s alleged misdeeds. “Without sufficient detail in the Articles … it is both impossible for the public to understand the allegations against their Attorney General and for the Attorney General’s legal team to prepare his defense,” Paxton’s counsel from Stone Hilton PLLC wrote in their motion. Paxton’s counsel accused the House impeachment managers of taking a “kitchen sink” approach with the charges which they say doesn’t meet the constitutionally required level of detail. In a follow-up motion, Paxton's counsel asked the Senate to dismiss the articles if House managers don’t add more details. “None of the Articles provide the Attorney General with constitutionally adequate notice of the charges, and forcing him to proceed on any of these Articles will violate the Texas Constitution and Texas law,” Paxton attorney Tony Buzbee said in a statement. Some have questioned whether Buzbee’s statement violates the gag order surrounding the trial. It’s worth noting that nearly the entirety of Buzbee’s statement is direct quotes from the two orders. The quote above is the only substantive part of the statement that goes beyond direct quotes. Team Paxton could file more motions to dismiss or quash in the coming days, so be on the lookout for those. As I mentioned in the programming note at the top of the newsletter, The Blast will be on hiatus Friday through Wednesday. Because Aug. 5 marks the deadline for pretrial motions, there could be a flurry of filings between now and the next Blast on Aug. 4. We’ll do our best to recap all the Paxton updates to come over the next week. In other Paxton news, Lauren McGaughy of The Dallas Morning News today published an interesting dive into the text exchange between House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Chair Jeff Leach, R-Plano, and Paxton senior adviser Michelle Smith that documents the breakdown of Paxton’s relationship with key lawmakers after news of his settlement broke. The story addresses what we already knew, lawmakers were pissed at Paxton about the settlement, but some of the details in the texts are quite spicy. Smith tries to invoke the “Christian thing to do” and Leach drops a “Bring it, Michelle.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://mailchi.mp/texastribune/the-blast-it-all-comes-out-in-the-quash Published and (C) by Texas Tribune Content appears here under this condition or license: Used with Permission: https://www.texastribune.org/republishing-guidelines/. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/texastribune/