Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick takes off judge's hat, calls impeachment a waste of taxpayers' money

After the Texas Senate on Saturday acquitted embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton following a dramatic nine-day impeachment trial, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, took the House to task for the way it brought the charges against the three-term Republican, saying the process was flawed and needlessly wasted "millions of taxpayers' dollars."

"I'm going to call next week for a full audit of all taxpayer money spent by the House from the beginning of their investigation in March to their final bills they get from their lawyers," said Patrick, also a three-term Republican who acted in the role of judge during the trial that ended with the 16 charges against Paxton being voted down by a solid core of 16 GOP senators.

Patrick said the impeachment, which had suspended Paxton from office until he was reinstated after Saturday's acquittal, was "forced on" the 31-member Senate by House impeachment managers who rushed their investigation into the allegations, which included that Paxton had misused his office to assist a friend and campaign donor who was in legal trouble and improperly fired several top and once-trusted aides who alerted federal authorities that the attorney general likely was operating outside of the law.

Analysis: Why the Senate voted to acquit Ken Paxton on each impeachment article

Without commenting directly on the allegations against Paxton, Patrick laid the blame for the events that led up to the trial and verdict at the feet of House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican in his second term at the helm of the lower chamber.

"The speaker and his team ran through the first impeachment of a statewide elected official in Texas in over 100 years while paying no attention to the precedent that the House set and every other impeachment before in the past," said Patrick, adding that he'll push for an amendment to the Texas Constitution to clearly set rules and procedures for impeaching state officeholders.

More: How each Texas Senator voted in Ken Paxton's impeachment trial

The remarks by Patrick rankled Phelan, who in March tasked a special committee to examine the attorney general's former aides' allegation after Paxton declined to explain to lawmakers why taxpayers' money should be used to settle the whistleblower lawsuit that was filed after those aides were fired.

"I find it deeply concerning that after weeks of claiming he would preside over this trial in an impartial and honest manner, Lt. Gov. Patrick would conclude by confessing his bias and placing his contempt for the people’s House on full display," Phelan said in a statement released by his office. "To be clear, Patrick attacked the House for standing up against corruption."

Patrick, who received a $3 million contribution — a $1 million donation and $2 million loan — from a pro-Paxton political action committee in the days leading up to the impeachment trial, has not explained why he accepted the contribution or what the terms of the loan are. Patrick is not up for reelection for three more years and already sat on a $22 million campaign war chest before the Defend Texas Liberty PAC contribution.

The lieutenant governor has declined to discuss the transactions, but he did announce after the PAC's contribution that he would suspend fundraising until after Paxton's trial ends.

Paxton, who remains indicted on state securities fraud charges and is under federal investigation, said in a statement after his acquittal that this proceeding that threatened to end his political career was a "sham" coordinated by Phelan and President Joe Biden's administration.

“Today, the truth prevailed,” Paxton said in a statement issued immediately after the verdict. “The truth could not be buried by mudslinging politicians or their powerful benefactors.”

Paxton was not in the Senate when the votes were tallied and the verdict announced, but he called the charges against him and the trial a "weaponization of the impeachment process."

Editorial: Paxton is acquitted, and Texans and good government are the losers

State Rep. Andrew Murr, a Junction Republican who chaired the special House panel that brought the charges against Paxton, said he knew going in that getting the two-thirds vote needed to convict Paxton would be a high hill to climb in the Senate, which is controlled 19-12 by the GOP.

Murr said the impeachment managers presented the Senate with "considerable uncontested, uncontroverted evidence of Mr. Paxton's corruption." Murr declined to speculate whether he or other Republicans who supported Paxton's removal might face retribution from their party's rank-and-file in the 2024 primaries.

"We did our duty to bring the evidence into the sunlight through this impeachment process," Murr told reporters after the trial ended. "And that exists for that very purpose. This trial painted an accurate and clear picture of an out-of-control attorney general who refused to listen to the desperate warnings of his conservative lawyers that he had entrusted to help run his office."

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Dan Patrick blames House, Dade Phelan for wasting money on impeachment