Deliberations are expected to resume at 9 a.m. Saturday. Paxton is accused of misusing his office to help a friend and donor who was under federal investigation.
Zach Despart
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 the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting. He led the Tribune’s effort to become the first news organization to map the fragmented 50-mile Texas border wall, a project that also found the state struggled with holdout landowners along the route. After it was published, the Legislature stopped funding the wall. 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. His investigation on how Texas diverted Harvey aid away from areas most at risk for storms sparked a federal investigation. An upstate New York native, he received his bachelor’s degree in political science and film from the University of Vermont.
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Ken Paxton Impeachment
Paxton defense calls charges “foolishness,” House argues AG “betrayed us” in closing impeachment arguments
Senators begin deliberating in private after defense lawyers and impeachment managers make impassioned pleas after two weeks of trial.
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Ken Paxton Impeachment
Paxton trial updates, Sept. 14: AG supervisor refutes whistleblower claims
Watch a livestream of the attorney general’s impeachment trial and get the latest updates as senators weigh his political future.
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Ken Paxton Impeachment
The House has rested its case against Ken Paxton after a chaotic day for the prosecution
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.
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Ken Paxton Impeachment
Paxton trial, Sept. 13: Woman in alleged affair with Paxton planned to plead the Fifth, doesn’t testify
Watch a livestream of the attorney general’s impeachment trial and get the latest updates as senators weigh his political future.
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Ken Paxton Impeachment
Paxton trial, Sept. 7: During new testimony, former AG deputy tears up responding to “rogue” allegations
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.”
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Ken Paxton Impeachment
Ken Paxton’s top deputy, the first impeachment witness, describes an attorney general out of control
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.
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Ken Paxton Impeachment
Paxton trial, Sept. 5: Suspended AG pleads not guilty to all impeachment articles, leaves before afternoon proceedings
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.
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Ken Paxton Impeachment
Texas Senate rejects all motions to dismiss Ken Paxton impeachment charges
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.
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Ken Paxton Impeachment
Ken Paxton tried to hide his affair from his wife and voters. It may be his undoing.
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.