Ken Paxton impeachment trial live updates: Third AG whistleblower still on stand as Day 3 ends

Day Three of Ken Paxton's impeachment trial is in the books, and the senator-jurors have heard from only three witnesses — all of them former whistleblower-aides to Paxton who made a complaint against him to the FBI in 2020.

When Thursday's proceedings ended, Paxton's lawyer, Mitch Little, was nearing the end of a contentious cross-examination of whistleblower Ryan Vassar, a former deputy attorney general.

Little, the third lawyer on Paxton's team to handle a prosecution witness, went hard at Vassar for going to the FBI with what he called "no evidence." He made the point that Vassar and the others had an obligation to give Paxton a chance to defend himself before they made the report.

"You reported him without a shred of evidence," Little snapped.

Vassar conceded that he and the whistleblowers did not have hard proof but relied on a "good faith belief " that Paxton had committed crimes in his relationship with Austin developer Nate Paul.

Paxton is accused in 16 impeachment articles of abusing the office to provide legal services favorable to Paul in exchange for a home remodel and a job for his mistress.

Little attacked finer points in some of the impeachment articles. One of them accuses Paxton of abusing his powers in 2020 to hire outside lawyer Brandon Cammack as an attorney pro-tem to investigative law enforcement's actions in an investigation into Paul. This came after Paul made a complaint that the FBI and other officials conducted a raid of his home without a lawful warrant.

Vassar agreed with Little that Cammack's role was not that of attorney pro-tem, a position in Texas that is ordinarily assigned by a judge.

"I didn't think so either," Vassar said.

Cammack was instead outside counsel, Little argued. It remains to be seen if this distinction alone is enough to defeat the charge.

For three days, Paxton's lawyers have accused the whistleblowers of removing their boss' name from an agency letterhead — an act they've called fireable and which they've used to argue that the whistleblowers were staging a coup against Paxton.

But Vassar said that never happened and offered the first evidence thus far that the agency used multiple letterheads, some that included Paxton's name and some that did not.

The trial resumes at 9 a.m. Friday. Vassar will complete his testimony. It remains to be seen when or if the jury will hear from Cammack, Paul, or the mistress, a woman named Laura Olson.

Former Paxton aide tears up at AG's 'rogue' criticism

Former attorney general's office aide Ryan Vassar became tearful on the witness stand Thursday when he testified about how suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton referred to him and fellow whistleblowers as "rogue employees."

"The statement of being called a rogue employee is contrary to the years of my life I dedicated to the state," he said, wiping tears away.

As part of a proposed $3.3 settlement with the whistleblowers, who allege they were fired after complaining of Paxton's behavior to the FBI, the attorney general agreed to apologize for the comment, and agreed to remove a statement from the agency's website with the reference.

During much of his testimony, prosecutor Rusty Hardin questioned Vassar about his involvement in Paxton's alleged attempts to obtain sensitive information about an ongoing law enforcement investigation into Nate Paul, an Austin real estate developer and Paxton campaign donor. The investigation resulted in an eight-count fraud indictment against Paul this summer.

Using his office to obtain information for Paul is one of the allegations Paxton is facing in his impeachment trial in the Texas Senate.

Vassar said Paxton instructed staff to "find a way" to release the information to Paul, which he said included information about FBI operations and the names and personal identifying information about federal agents working on the case.

Typically, the attorney general's office fiercely fights against the public disclosure of information about an active law enforcement investigation.

Vassar said he warned Paxton that "if we were to reach the opposite conclusion and require the Texas Department of Public safety to release the information it would upset decades of precedent involving the law enforcement privilege."

Paxton then asked to see the information himself, Vassar said.

Vassar said that he believed that based on his conversations with Paxton, he believed the attorney general was acting in cooperation with Paul.

"He told us he had spoken personally to Mr. Paul and he believed something bad had happened to Mr. Paul and Mr. Paul was being railroaded by DPS and the FBI," Vassar said.

Ken Paxton's impeachment trial moving at grinding pace heading into Thursday lunch break

After two-and-a-half days, only one witness has completed his testimony in Ken Paxton's impeachment trial — a grinding pace that suggests the case could go on for several more weeks.

The second witness, Ryan Bangert, a former Paxton senior official, is still on the witness stand heading into Thursday's lunch break. The court is in recess for lunch until 1:10 p.m.

Before the break, Bangert, whose testimony began Wednesday afternoon, was being cross-examined by Paxton's lawyer Anthony Osso.

In discussing a legal opinion on COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, Bangert had testified on direct examination that Paxton in 2020 forced him to write a legal memo to halt foreclosure sales. At the time, Nate Paul, an Austin real estate developer central to bribery allegations against Paxton, was at the risk of losing properties.

Bangert said he believed that Paxton forced the memo, drafted frantically over a weekend, to benefit Paul at a foreclosure sale the following week. But in his questioning, Osso made the point that it wasn't that memo that allowed for Paul to maintain his properties, but from Paul declaring bankruptcy.

"So it's possible that Ken's letter did not affect it but the filing did, right?" Osso said.

In response, Bangert said he found it suspicious that Paul's company, World Class, cited the legal memo in a court filing to stop the foreclosure sale.

Former Paxton aide rejects defense's theory of mutiny against the AG

Ken Paxton’s lawyers have been trying to make the case that former senior officials in his office conspired with outside forces to take down their boss.

A top Paxton aide disputed that Thursday.

“That would make no sense to me,” former deputy first assistant Ryan Bangert testified. “We were trying to protect the attorney general as much as we could. We had continuously and in various ways warned him about Mr. Paul.”

Over the past two days, Bangert testified to having intimate knowledge of four incidents that House prosecutors say support their theory that Paxton provided impermissible legal assistance to Nate Paul, a campaign donor.

Bangert testified that Paxton used a public records request to obtain confidential law enforcement records in a federal investigation into Paul and his company, and that Paxton intervened to assist Paul in a lawsuit against the nonprofit Mitte Foundation.

On Wednesday, Bangert testified that in 2020 Paxton forced him to re-work a legal opinion in an attempt to block foreclosure sales during the pandemic. At the time, Paul was at risk of losing several properties.

The final incident, Bangert said, was Paxton hiring an outside lawyer to investigate the conduct of law enforcement officials in Paul's criminal investigation.

Bangert called it "unconscionable."

"I was exceptionally concerned," Bangert said. He added: "There was no basis or justification for it. It would not serve the public interest."

Bangert, the trial's second witness, quit the agency in November 2020 after he was stripped of his duties. He is not part of the whistleblower lawsuit that prompted Paxton's impeachment. Nor is Jeff Mateer, an earlier witness. This distinction is key as prosecutors challenge the defense theory that Paxton's former aides had staged a mutiny against him.

Ken Paxton impeachment trial recap: See what happened on day one

Ken Paxton impeachment trial recap: Here's what happened on day two

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Ken Paxton impeachment trial updates: Third AG whistleblower still on stand as Day 3 ends