(C) Texas Tribune This story was originally published by Texas Tribune and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Blast: Waiting for the Vatican smoke signals [1] [] Date: 2023-10 After two weeks of the impeachment trial of suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton and constant babbling from Houston attorneys, it’s finally time for the jury to talk. Well, almost. Senators are currently deliberating how to vote on the 16 articles of impeachment facing the attorney general. If senators convict him on at least one article by a vote of at least 20-10, Paxton will be formally removed from office. If he’s acquitted of all charges, Paxton will immediately return to office. But while we wait, let’s look at how the closing arguments went down this morning. Murr: Paxton refuses to take responsibility Rep. Andrew Murr, the lead impeachment manager, broke up the House’s close into three segments. In the first — a 10-minute slot before he let Paxton attorneys Tony Buzbee and Dan Cogdell close — Murr preempted the defense’s suggestion that establishment Republicans had cooked up a plan to usurp Paxton. He also hit the attorney general from skipping out on the trial since lunch on Day 1. “[Paxton] is sitting here today, saying that he was completely entitled to do what he did and that these witnesses were some part of some deep state conspiracy,” Murr said. In the remaining 50 minutes of the House’s close, Murr outlined why they were holding a trial in the first place. “Mr. Paxton last attempted to silence those whistleblowers with his request to the taxpayers that the taxpayers pay $3.3 million in hush money,” Murr said, adding that Paxton refused to justify the funds when lawmakers asked. “Mr. Paxton refuses to take any responsibility for abusing the esteemed office that he holds.” Buzbee: “The Bush era in Texas ends today” By comparison, Buzbee asserted they were there because “[House Speaker] Dade Phelan got his feelings hurt” when Paxton accused him of presiding over the House while drunk, telling him to resign. “He was so drunk — so drunk handling the House business, knowing full well that they had no evidence to support an impeachment and they hadn’t done their homework,” Buzbee yelled, claiming that Paxton’s statement led the House to speed up the process and go public with the impeachment inquiry. But he also called it a “battle for power,” a partisan fight within the GOP. It’s clear who he thought Paxton was battling. “The Bush era in Texas ends today,” he declared, twice. Buzbee rattled off the dots that the defense tried to connect involving the Bush world, from George P. Bush’s 68%-32% loss to Paxton in last year’s AG GOP runoff to the fact that the whistleblowers are all represented by attorney Johnny Sutton, who worked for Gov. George W. Bush and later was a U.S. attorney under President George W. Bush. “Have you ever met a lawyer that works for three years for free, who’s a former U.S. attorney, who’s doing legitimate work?” Buzbee asked. He even mentioned George P. reupping his law license the same day the whistleblowers went to the FBI, the fact that led Buzbee to first drop the “old saying ‘there are no coincidences in Austin’” back on Day 2 of the trial. After bringing up George P.’s loss to Paxton, Buzbee said the House’s case was all based on assumptions and brought up another old saying, that “assumptions make an ass out of you and me.” Buzbee then flashed senators’ screens with a cartoon donkey smiling, turned around to expose its big shiny butt. It was a blink-or-you’ll-miss-it moment that wasn’t shared on the live feed. For the curious, the clip art looked something like this. Leach became “alarmed at what I saw” After Murr gave the second half of his close, the House impeachment managers turned to their closer, Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano. Like Paxton, Leach is a Collin County guy. Both attend Prestonwood Baptist Church. Leach said they’ve attended Cowboys and Baylor football games together and choked up when he called Paxton his “dear friend, a political mentor, a brother in Christ and a once-trusted adviser.” Leach also noted that he used to spend hours on the phone with Paxton and that he had an open door to the attorney general’s office to visit any time to talk about anything. Senators in the room were afforded the same courtesy, Leach continued. “But a few years ago, those calls stopped and that open door was closed, and I became increasingly concerned and alarmed at what I saw,” Leach said. And now, we wait. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick instructed senators to deliberate until at least 8 tonight. (That’s how he phrased it, but I think that meant to deliberate that long unless they’re ready to announce their verdicts.) If they need, Patrick said they would deliberate from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow. And if they’re still not done, Patrick said they would start again at noon on Sunday and go until the late evening, even suggesting he might sequester them in the building at that point. “We all have slept overnight in our office once or twice. I know I have,” Patrick said. He said to take as long as they need to come to the decision they believe is right, but I think the only person who might be happy with a Monday verdict is Speaker Phelan, who will celebrate his 48th birthday that day. Expect The Blast to return tonight or this weekend when we have a verdict. [END] --- [1] Url: https://mailchi.mp/texastribune/the-blast-waiting-for-the-vatican-smoke-signals 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/