(The Center Square ) – The Texas Senate announced rules governing the impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton and scheduled it for Sept. 5.
It adopted Senate Resolution 35, the Rules of Impeachment of Warren Kenneth Paxton, Jr., which passed by a vote of 25-3 slightly after 8:30 pm on Wednesday.
Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Grandbury, led the Special Committee to Recommend Rules and Procedures for Court of Impeachment, whose members he said debated over rules and procedures for the past 30 hours.
Other members of the committee include vice chair Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, Joan Huffman, R-Houston, Phil King, R-Weatherford, and Royce West, D-Dallas.
He said the committee members did “the yeoman’s work from a legal, historic, technical perspective.”
“The discussions they had yesterday and today in a challenging situation resulted in the creation of a document that has overwhelming members’ support and the majority signed as joint authors,” he said.
Over the previous three weeks, members of the Rules Committee put together the document. But discussions over the last two days prompted the Senate to delay announcing the rules multiple times until Wednesday night.
Birdwell said the rules have strong bipartisan support.
The Senate also passed Senate Resolution 36, Notice of Impeachment Proceedings, to notify Paxton that the trial will begin Sept. 5. It passed by a vote of 28-2.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also read Senate Rule 10, Section B and C governing what members can and cannot discuss about the trial. He said, “A court of impeachment has been called. No members of the court, staff of members, presiding officers, … legal counsel shall discuss or comment on any matter on related to the impeachment proceedings” to Paxton or any counsel involved in the case.
On “Advocating a position,” he said, “no member of the court shall advocate a position on the merits of the proceedings to other members of the court … until such time as deliberations should begin.”
Prior to gaveling out the proceedings, he said, “I’ve never seen 31 senators more united, yesterday on property taxes, and on this issue, to take an oath so that justice prevails that everyone will do their job to the utmost in fairness in this impeachment trial. I’ve never been more proud of the members of this floor than how you came together on the Senate responsibilities. The citizens of the state of Texas can count on the Senate to have a fair and just trial.”
Both the 29-page SR 35 and one-page SR 36 have been published online.
The Senate adopted the rules after Texas GOP leadership voted to condemn the House impeachment vote over the weekend and on Monday called on the Senate to throw out the charges.
The House voted to impeach Paxton on May 27 by a vote of 121-23. The vote has been largely viewed among conservatives as politically motivated by “Republicans in name only.”
The full House was given 48 hours to vote on 20 articles of impeachment after the House General Investigating Committee held a three-hour hearing at which no sworn testimony, documents or evidence was presented. Paxton and his legal team were barred from presenting testimony or evidence and maintain the vote was “illegal, unethical and profoundly unjust.”
