/https://static.texastribune.org/media/profiles/Zach_Despart_HC_TT_02.jpg)
Zach Despart is an enterprise and investigative reporter focusing on state government. His work on a team investigating the flawed police response to the Uvalde school shooting was awarded the 2024 Collier Prize and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting. He led the Tribune’s effort to become the first news organization to determine where Texas has built 50 miles of border wall, a project that also found the state struggles with holdout landowners along the route. He previously covered Harris County for the Houston Chronicle, where he reported on corruption, elections, disaster preparedness and the region’s recovery from Hurricane Harvey. An upstate New York native, he received his bachelor’s degree in political science and film from the University of Vermont.
The House prosecutors failed to call a star witness and battled with the defense attorneys over allegations the suspended attorney general had been bribed by Nate Paul. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/69ab4f66e38342dab6d55c261e718215/0913%20Paxton%20Trial%20Day%207%20EG%20TT%2009.jpg)
Watch a livestream of the attorney general’s impeachment trial and get the latest updates as senators weigh his political future. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/a7f20f74331c84ecd473d9b585774264/0913%20Paxton%20Trial%20Day%207%20EG%20TT%2013.jpg)
Former attorney general officials testified that Ken Paxton pushed to release confidential FBI records to friend and donor Nate Paul. They also denied defense attorneys’ assertions that they staged a “mutiny.” Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/9c9ee688b6cf08b4961ba1d95f1eeb93/0907%20Impeach%20Trial%20Day%203%20BD%20TT%2045.jpg)
Jeff Mateer testified that Paxton was so intent on helping Austin real estate investor Nate Paul that he worried the attorney general was being blackmailed. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/bc88a7fa2e6c1cc9320e0fcb06b6b53d/0906%20Impeach%20Trial%20Day%202%20BD%20TT%2005.jpg)
The pretrial motions required a majority vote. All but one were rejected by two-thirds of the Senate, suggesting an openness in the chamber to hear the allegations against Paxton. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/1ab6180099e74c6533ee26628f7b2cb5/0905%20Impeachment%20Trial%20BD%20TT%2005.jpg)
On the first day of the impeachment trial, senators rejected defense attorneys’ attempts to dismiss all 16 articles of impeachment. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also ruled that Ken Paxton couldn’t be forced to testify. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/cbc3e40a295fbf4388741eb2f030b838/0905%20Floor%20POOL%20JF%20DMN%2011.jpeg)
The impeachment trial that starts Tuesday is expected to center on Paxton’s infidelity, and could air out the sordid details of the staunch, Christian conservative’s life as he sits just yards away from his wife, and her 30 Senate colleagues. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/e9536c14a3fe289bcfc70cfe5f7f62de/0110%20Lege%20Opening%20BD%2038.jpg)
Only 28% of Republican respondents agreed that the charges against Texas’ attorney general were warranted, compared to 42% of independents and three-quarters of Democrats, the poll found. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/22d057d9ed331a2db6a1c9f991236b84/Paxton%20SATX%20KGB%20TT%20redo%2009.jpg)
Paul personally chose targets and drafted language for subpoenas issued by Brandon Cammack, an outside lawyer hired by Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton hired Cammack to investigate his friend’s complaints after his own deputies advised him against it. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/3bef39785db277d58795f39475e37e21/Cammack%20and%20Nate%20Paul%20TT%2001.jpg)
Drew Wicker testified that he ferried documents to Nate Paul on behalf of his boss and witnessed conversations that suggested Paul was paying for the attorney general’s home renovations. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/d897fc848decc11c45ddab898e75a745/Ken%20Paxton%20File%20MF%20TT%2003.jpg)