Texas legal titans DeGuerin, Hardin to prosecute AG Ken Paxton's impeachment case

Dick DeGuerin and Rusty Hardin, two Texas legal titans with more than 100 combined years of courtroom experience, will prosecute the impeachment case against suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The two Houston attorneys were introduced by the House Investigating Committee at a news conference Thursday where it pledged to uncover the truth into Paxton’s decade of alleged corrupt behavior and present its findings at a trial before the Senate.

A trial date has not been set but must start no later than Aug. 28.

Will Ken Paxton be impeached? Here's what we know.

“The people of the state of Texas are entitled to know whether their top cop is a crook,” DeGuerin said.

Hardin implored the Senate to make the proceedings public. The Senate will adopt it rules of engagement June 20.

“I hope as they develop them and as we go forward, we're going to have a full public hearing that allows both sides to present the evidence that allows the public and the world to know just what happened here,” he said, adding, without elaborating, that the truth, “I promise you is 10 times worse than has been public.”

The presence of DeGuerin and Hardin raises the stakes in a highly politicized proceeding in which Paxton, a three-term Republican, faces permanent removal from office if convicted by two-thirds of the Republican-controlled Senate. The Senate has 31 members, including Paxton's wife, Sen. Angela Paxton.

More: Overwhelming GOP support helped Texas House impeach AG Ken Paxton. Senate trial is next.

Paxton is suspended without pay pending the Senate trial. In his absence, the attorney general's office is being temporarily led by John Scott, a former secretary of state who Gov. Greg Abbott chose Wednesday.

Paxton’s defense team includes six attorney general's office employees who say they are taking a leave of absence to prepare for the trial. DeGuerin said that might be improper.

"Sounds like misuse of public resources," he said.

DeGuerin is known for defending several high profile clients, including former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, Texas singer/songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, real estate scion Robert Durst, and David Koresh, the cult leader at the center of the Waco siege in 1993.

More: Meet Rep. Andrew Murr, the Hill Country rancher who led Texas AG Ken Paxton impeachment push

Hardin’s past clients include Houston star athletes Roger Clemens, Calvin Murphy and Deshaun Watson. As a special prosecutor he won a case against former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson for hiding evidence to wrongfully convict Michael Morton of murder.

DeGuerin and Hardin said they accepted the job over the weekend on an invitation from Rep. Andrew Murr, the chair of the House Investigating Committee. They said they’ve signed contracts but would not disclose what they’re being paid.

On Saturday, House members voted 121-23 to advance 20 articles of impeachment against Paxton in connection to, among other things, misusing his office to benefit Austin real estate developer Nate Paul and retaliating against employees in his office who complained to the FBI about his alleged misconduct.

More: Texas AG Ken Paxton calls push for impeachment 'deceitful' ahead of House vote Saturday

DeGuerin and Hardin declined to say if they would subpoena Paul to testify in the trial.

Angela Paxton has also not commented publicly on whether she'll recuse herself from deciding whether or not her husband should be ousted from office.

Only two Texas officials have ever been impeached: Gov. James Ferguson in 1917 and District Judge O.P. Carrillo in 1975.

Why is Ken Paxton being impeached? Read the 20 charges against him and Texas AG's response

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas impeachment: Dick DeGuerin, Rusty Hardin to prosecute Ken Paxton