Ken Paxton impeachment trial live updates: Paxton was 'desperate' to stall foreclosure sales for Nate Paul, former aide testifies

Paxton was 'desperate' to stall foreclosure sales for Nate Paul, former aide testifies

Wednesday's proceedings are over, and the trial will pick back up at 9 a.m. Thursday.

When the day ended, House prosecutors were questioning their second witness, Ryan Bangert, a onetime aide to Ken Paxton. Bangert, former deputy first assistant, testified that in the summer of 2020 he was involved in handling COVID-19 policies when Paxton instructed him to draft a legal opinion on foreclosure sales.

Bangert said that he came to the conclusion that sales could go forward and were not prohibited by orders against large gatherings. This he said squared with the agency's anti-lockdown position at the time.

Paxton, he said, rejected that analysis and told him to draft an opinion with the opposite position — that foreclosure sales were prohibited. Further, Paxton wanted it done as soon as possible, prompting Bangert and another aide, Ryan Vassar, to work through the night during the weekend.

Bangert said Paxton was like a "man with a gun to his head."

"Anxious, desperate, urging me to get this out as quickly as humanly possible," he testified.

WATCH LIVE: Day 2 of Ken Paxton impeachment trial

Paxton's stated reason, according to Bangert, was to protect homeowners. But Bangert said he soon became suspicious that Paxton was trying to help Nate Paul, the Austin developer at the center of Paxton's impeachment trial.

"The degree of interference here was completely unprecedented," Bangert testified.

Paxton is accused in this trial of bribery and misuse of office in providing legal services favorable to Paul, a campaign donor.

House prosecutors say that the request for the foreclosure guidance came from Paxton through Sen. Bryan Hughes, a longtime Paxton friend described in an impeachment article as a "straw requestor." Hughes, a juror in this trial, could be called to testify.

Earlier Wednesday, Paxton's lawyer, Tony Buzbee, sought to undermine the impeachment count on foreclosure sales. The article he noted says Paxton pursued a legal opinion, but this, he said, was nothing more than informal legal guidance.

Another Paxton aide expresses concerns about AG's relationship with Nate Paul

Former Deputy First Assistant Attorney General Ryan Bangert testified Wednesday that he was baffled that Paxton insisted that the agency find a way to get Nate Paul confidential investigative records involving Paul.

But he also hinted at another reason Paul and Paxton formed an allyship.

Paul had attempted to gain the records, including a probable cause affidavit, from the Texas Department of Public Safety. Following protocol, DPS sought an opinion from the AG's office about whether the records should remain secret.

Bangert said Paxton asked staff to reconsider their opinion that the records should remain sealed.

"It made me very concerned," Bangert said after researching Paul and learning that he remained under a large federal and state investigation. "You do not want to compromise in any way an ongoing investigation."

Bangert said Paxton shared with him his motivation for wanting Paul to have the records: Paul believed the FBI had acted improperly in the raid of his property in 2019 and wanted insight into the investigation.

Paxton felt a connection, he said.

"The attorney general shared with me his view that he had been wronged by law enforcement was uninterested in having other Texas citizens wronged by law enforcement as well," Bangert testified.

Paxton has long railed against three state securities fraud charges against him, calling them a law enforcement overreach.

Federal officials indicted Paul this summer on fraud charges.

Wednesday's proceedings are expected to go until 6:30 p.m.

'Hogwash': Defense attorney Tony Buzbee seeks to discredit impeachment articles against Ken Paxton

With the trial's first witness finally off the stand, Ken Paxton's lead lawyer is seeking to discredit several impeachment articles levied against the suspended attorney general.

In an often bruising cross-examination Wednesday, Paxton's lawyer Tony Buzbee blasted the witness, former Paxton aide Jeff Mateer, for making what he called false assumptions against Paxton that Mateer and other top aides reported to the FBI in September 2020.

Buzbee even accused Mateer and the others of trying to overthrow their boss.

"You were staging a coup, weren't you," Buzbee said, citing conversations the aides had with the governor's office and members of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a nonprofit that Paxton's supporters say are behind his impeachment. Buzbee also cited the removal of Paxton's name from an office letterhead — something Mateer says he knows nothing about.

"Absolutely not," Mateer said in response to the coup claim.

Mateer, whose testimony began Tuesday, finally left the stand after 4 p.m. Wednesday. The next witness to testify was another former Paxton aide, Ryan Bangert.

In questioning Mateer, Buzbee highlighted inconsistencies that he says should easily defeat two impeachment articles. One accuses Paxton of making lawyers in his office intervene in a lawsuit involving Austin real estate developer Nate Paul and the nonprofit Mitte Foundation. Buzbee noted that Mateer, Paxton's first assistant, authorized that intervention.

"So, this article is hogwash, isn't it?" Buzbee asked.

Mateer responded: "I think we would need more information."

Another impeachment article accuses Paxton of issuing a legal opinion to stop a foreclosure sale that included Paul's properties. Buzbee made the distinction that it was merely legal guidance, not a formal opinion. This error, he says, is fatal.

"You know as a lawyer that it fails right there," Buzbee told Mateer.

Much time was spent discussing an outside lawyer that Mateer and other aides hired before making their complaint against Paxton to the FBI. That lawyer, Johnny Sutton, initially was under consideration to represent the agency as a whole, and Mateer had initiated that process by seeking $50,000 in state money.

"What authority did you have to secretly go behind your boss' back to allocate $50,000 for outside counsel?" Buzbee said.

Mateer rejected that framing, noting that the agency ultimately did not hire Sutton. Rather, Mateer said, him and other aides hired him to represent them individually.

Paxton's lawyer accuses AG top aide of making false assumptions about boss

During the cross-examination Wednesday of Paxton's former first assistant Jeff Mateer, Paxton attorney Tony Buzbee painted corruption allegations reported to the FBI by Mateer and other Paxton aides as unexamined hearsay.

"Have you ever played the game of telephone with your kids?" Buzbee asked. "Sometimes it is comical how the story is passed from one person to another person."

Mateer responded that based on Paxton's behavior toward Nate Paul in the prior months, "I made some reasonable assumptions."

Buzbee responded: "You know that assumptions are sometimes wrong."

Buzbee questioned why Mateer and the group did not investigate their concerns, including not directly asking Paxton whether Paul was paying for a home remodel for the Paxtons — an allegation key to the case against the attorney general.

The home remodel claim is based on an overheard conversation by Paxton aide Drew Wicker, who was not part of the whistleblower group. Mateer said he could not recall how he learned that Wicker reportedly raised alarms that Paul may be paying for the remodel based on a conversation he overheard at the Paxton home about the project.

Buzbee said he will prove that the Paxtons bankrolled the project and has bank records and other documents as evidence.

Buzbee said he was surprised that Mateer could not remember how he learned of the home remodel concern, given its significance to the case, and never approached Paxton, who had trusted Mateer enough to hire him into a key leadership role in his agency.

"You could have put this to bed had you talked to your boss," Buzbee said.

Mateer's cross-examination is expected to continue Wednesday afternoon.

'A crisis moment' led to FBI complaint against Ken Paxton

Jeff Mateer, the former second-in-command to Attorney General Ken Paxton, testified Wednesday about a critical moment that prompted him and other senior officials to make a complaint against Paxton to the FBI.

It happened on Sept. 29, 2020. Mateer, who was leading a virtual meeting with deputy attorneys from other states, abruptly excused himself after receiving an urgent message. He learned that an outside lawyer representing himself as an attorney general's office employee had served a grand jury subpoena to a bank.

That outside lawyer, Brandon Cammack, was Paxton's hand-picked choice to investigate a complaint from Austin real estate developer Nate Paul into the conduct of federal authorities during a raid at Paul's home the year before.

By that time, Mateer said he and other deputies had told Paxton to not hire Cammack. Thus, he was surprised to learn that Paxton had apparently ignored their advice and did it anyway.

After learning about the subpoena, Mateer and other deputies convened an urgent meeting.

"We considered it a crisis moment," Mateer testified. "Everything involving Mr. Paul was coming to a head."

By that time, Paxton had taken two other actions to benefit Paul that puzzled his aides: intervening in a lawsuit against a nonprofit, and issuing legal guidance to halt a foreclosure sale that included Paul's properties.

That legal guidance cited COVID-19 restrictions against large gatherings, countering earlier decisions from Paxton's office to loosen restrictions.

"The opinion took the complete opposite view," Mateer testified. "It was as if Anthony Fauci had written it."

Paxton is accused in this trial of misuse of office and bribery in providing legal assistance favorable to Paul, a campaign donor.

It was around this same time that Mateer said he learned that Paul had hired for his company a woman with whom Paxton had an extramarital affair in 2018. That woman, Laura Olson, is expected to testify in this trial. Mateer said he took her hire to suggest the affair had resumed.

"It answered the question of why he is engaging in all of these activities," Mateer said. "I thought, is he being blackmailed?

A few days later, on Oct. 2, 2020, Mateer resigned from the attorney general's office.

"I concluded that Mr. Paxton was engaged in conduct that was immoral, unethical, and I had a good faith belief that it was illegal," he said.

After a short break, Mateer will be cross-examined by Paxton's lawyers.

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Paxton's lawyers drop objection to certain exhibits

A day after Ken Paxton's lawyers objected to the admissibility of Paxton communications with his staff, arguing that they are protected under attorney-client privilege, they are now standing down.

On Wednesday morning, they dropped that objection, allowing for House prosecutors to present those communications as evidence.

In explaining the shift, Paxton's lawyer, Tony Buzbee, said, "the attorney general has nothing to hide."

Buzbee's announcement kicked off the day's proceedings, which started 45 minutes late for reasons that were not made public. The first witness was Jeff Mateer, the former first assistant to Paxton whose testimony began Tuesday afternoon.

Paxton, who is no longer required to attend the trial, did not show up Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Ken Paxton impeachment trial: Live updates from Texas AG case