The Texas House impeached the attorney general in rushed proceedings mere days before the end of the 2023 legislative session. Yet months later, the impeachment crumbled under even the lightest scrutiny while Ken Paxton was on trial in the Texas Senate.
The process itself was so flawed that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick—who presided over the impeachment trial as President of the Senate—later requested an audit of both chambers’ expenses to serve as a guidepost for future legislatures.
Now, a year out from the beginning of Paxton’s trial, the House still has yet to disclose the cost of the impeachment proceedings.
Today, Patrick blasted House Speaker Dade Phelan for failing to disclose the cost:
Dade Phelan has 𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐃 to comply with the audit for almost a year now, and apparently, he doesn’t believe he needs to tell taxpayers how much he spent on the impeachment. I’m not aware of any legislator refusing to tell taxpayers how they spent taxpayer money.
What is Dade Phelan afraid to show the public? Millions upon millions of your money, spent on high-priced private lawyers who lost the case, in addition to his costly state expenses.
The Senate spent $435,000 during the two months of preparation and the trial itself. Now, Patrick is accusing Phelan of failing to be transparent with taxpayers after “the House threw transparency and due process out the window.”
“It is alarming and pathetic that Dade Phelan has refused to provide an accounting of how he squandered tax dollars on this sham process,” a Paxton campaign spokesperson told Texas Scorecard. “Texans deserve to know how and where he spent their money. The Speaker should be held accountable.”
Patrick also took aim at the House’s process.
“They had a committee meet in secret where they broke all precedent by not holding public hearings, not putting their witnesses under oath or allowing cross-examination, and they did not allow the attorney general to present evidence or have a lawyer present,” wrote Patrick on social media. “Naturally, when their witnesses actually had to testify under oath and cross-examination in the Senate trial, they fell flat on the witness stand.”
Paxton faced 20 charges of misapplication of public resources, bribery, obstruction of justice, abuse of public trust, and disregard of official duties brought by the House.
However, the main focus of the investigator’s report was a settlement reached with four former employees of the Office of the Attorney General who say they were fired unfairly.
In October 2020, eight of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s top aides accused him of bribery and abuse of office. After being terminated from employment, four employees filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Paxton, where they alleged that Paxton did political favors for Nate Paul, a real estate developer and donor, by having his office intervene in his legal disputes.
The case fell apart in the impeachment trial.
One whistleblower, Ryan Vassar, admitted to having no evidence when reporting Paxton to the FBI. Another, David Maxwell, said he made claims to House investigators even though he didn’t know if they were true.
This led to Tony Buzbee, one of Paxton’s attorneys, referring to the whistleblowers as “disgruntled ex-staffers.”
“Dade Phelan and the liberal House leadership were disgraceful and their false impeachment has been completely discredited,” Paxton’s spokesperson added.
House Republicans who backed the impeachment faced a major blow with Paxton’s acquittal.
Over in the House, 61 Democrats and 60 Republicans had followed Phelan in the impeachment of Paxton. In this year’s GOP primary, 14 of the Republicans were defeated while another four chose not to run for re-election—including Phelan’s point man on the impeachment push, State Rep. Andrew Murr (R-Junction).
Paxton endorsed and campaigned for several of the challengers to those now-defeated incumbents.
The attorney general’s endorsees also swept the Court of Criminal Appeals races, a focus for him after their 2021 ruling removed the office’s power to prosecute election fraud. The court argued instead that the power primarily lay with local district attorneys. Paxton disagrees with this ruling, as does Gov. Greg Abbott.
The House is expected to look different next session, with new Republican lawmakers and three members thus far announcing they will challenge Phelan for the speakership.
Meanwhile, Paxton has continued to rack up wins for Texas, having filed more than 75 lawsuits against the Biden-Harris administration in the past four years and winning several rounds in federal courts. Among those wins, Paxton has secured federal court victories against the Biden-Harris border policies and LGBT agenda.
Dade Phelan did not return Texas Scorecard’s request for comment on the status of the audit.
