DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Texas AG Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial is on the brink of a verdict as senators end deliberations
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The Texas Senate on Saturday ended deliberations over whether Attorney General Ken Paxton should be removed from office, putting the Republican's historic impeachment trial on the brink of a verdict. Paxton, who did not attend the majority of the two-week trial, was not seen in the chamber as some senators wandered around their desks. If convicted, Paxton would become Texas' first statewide official convicted on impeachment charges in more than 100 years. Leaning into divisions among Republicans, Buzbee portrayed the impeachment as a plot orchestrated by an old guard of GOP rivals. The verdict will be decided by 30 of the 31 state senators, most of them Republicans.

Persons: Ken Paxton, Paxton, Donald Trump, mangers, Andrew Murr, Tony Buzbee, Buzbee, George P, Bush, George W, Sen, Angela Paxton, Austin, Nate Paul, Paul, Drew Wicker, Paxton's, Wicker, Nate, general's Austin, Laura Olson, Olson, ___ Organizations: Texas Senate, Texas Capitol, Texas, FBI, Republican, Texas House, Texas Ranger, Republican Party Locations: Texas, U.S, San Antonio

☆ Texas Senators Begin to Deliberate Paxton Impeachment
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( J. David Goodman | More About J. David Goodman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Deliberations began on Friday in the impeachment trial of Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, as the jury of state senators weighed allegations of bribery and abuse of office based on complaints made against him by his most senior former aides. Before deliberating, the senators — 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats — heard closing arguments from the House impeachment managers, led by Republican lawmakers who oversaw the prosecution, and from Mr. Paxton’s lawyers. “The defense isn’t that he didn’t do it, it’s that it doesn’t matter because he won the election,” Representative Andrew Murr, a West Texas Republican who led the impeachment managers, said in his closing argument. “That is a godless, rudderless morality, and it cannot be the new normal in Texas.”Mr. Paxton sat listening at the defense table, the first time he has appeared in the Senate chamber for the trial since he entered a plea of not guilty on opening day. From the spectators’ gallery above Mr. Paxton, at least three of his former senior aides who testified at the trial sat together, looking down on the proceedings.

Persons: Ken Paxton, —, Andrew Murr, ” Mr, Paxton Organizations: Republican, West Texas Republican Locations: Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is underway with live television coverage, a former aide who reported him to the FBI on the witness stand and his wife watching from her desk in the state Senate but prohibited from participating. But how much Paxton himself will take part in the historic trial that resumes Wednesday is up in the air. Paxton pleaded not guilty Tuesday but did not return for opening arguments, when his attorneys sharply criticized the impeachment and urged Republican senators to acquit. The vote immediately suspended Paxton and made him only the third sitting official in Texas’ nearly 200-year history to be impeached. What they are doing is taking away the vote of the majority of the people of Texas,” Bowen said.

Persons: Ken Paxton, Paxton, Paxton’s, “, Dan Cogdell, Jeff Mateer, Mateer, “ Mr, ”, Andrew Murr, Biden, Austin, Nate Paul, Tony Buzbee, Paxton “, Paul, Gov, Dan Patrick, Sen, Angela Paxton, —, Peter Bowen, ” Bowen Organizations: Texas, FBI, Senators, Republican, “, Capitol, Texas Republicans, Trump, Texas ’, Senate Locations: AUSTIN, Texas, acquit, May, Houston

☆ Texas AG Ken Paxton's former aide who reported him to FBI is first key witness in impeachment trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

"The problem is the office is being used for the benefit of one person," said Jeff Mateer, who was Paxton's second-in-command at the Texas attorney generals' office. Their relationship is central to the case led by Republican impeachment managers that Paxton should be removed from office. Mateer took the stand with few onlookers in the Senate gallery for what is Texas' first impeachment trial in nearly a half century. Paxton attorney Tony Buzbee said Paxton "gave nothing of significance" to Paul and framed the proceedings as an attempt to overturn the will of voters. Paxton attorney Tony Buzbee said Paxton "gave nothing of significance" to Paul and framed the proceedings as an attempt to overturn the will of voters.

Persons: Ken Paxton, Jeff Mateer, Mateer, Paxton, Nate Paul, Paul, Dan Cogdell, Biden, Tony Buzbee, Gov, Dan Patrick, Paxton's, Sen, Angela Paxton, —, Mr, Andrew Murr, Austin, Peter Bowen, Bowen Organizations: Texas, FBI, Texas Senate, Republican, The Associated Press, Senators, Texas Republicans, Trump, Capitol, Senate Locations: Texas, U.S, Washington , U.S, Austin, May, Houston

☆ Prosecution urges conviction in impeachment trial of Texas Republican Paxton
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Brad Brooks | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks ahead of a rally held by former U.S. President Donald Trump, in Robstown, Texas, U.S., October 22, 2022. Paxton entered pleas of not guilty as an impeachment trial spearheaded by his fellow Republicans got underway. Republican state Representative Andrew Murr, delivering the opening statement for the prosecution, urged senators to remove Paxton from a post he has held since 2015. The last impeachment trial of a statewide office-holder in Texas was held in 1917. At the end of the trial, the Senate could dismiss those four charges or hold a separate trial on them.

Persons: Ken Paxton, Donald Trump, Go Nakamura, Ken Paxton's, Paxton, Tony Buzbee, Paxton's, Andrew Murr, Mr, he's, Murr, Trump's, I've, Buzbee, Angela, Trump, Joe Biden, Nate Paul, Brad Brooks, Will Dunham, Donna Bryson, Andy Sullivan Organizations: U.S, REUTERS, Republicans, Republican, Democratic, Senators, FBI, Senate, Thomson Locations: Texas, Robstown , Texas, U.S, Longmont , Colorado

☆ Takeaways From the Impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs | J. David Goodman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Representative Ann Johnson, a Democrat and former prosecutor, laid into Mr. Paxton from the floor on Saturday, saying he had broken laws that could lead to jail time. She also described what she said were senior members of Mr. Paxton’s staff whose integrity had compelled them to speak up about his behavior. She said one employee observed Mr. Paxton requesting expensive renovations to his home that would be taken care of by his friend and donor. When he continued to be paid by Mr. Paxton, she said, the man returned the money to Mr. Paxton’s campaign. After the impeachment vote, Mr. Trump personally vilified Mr. Phelan.

Follow our live updates for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment proceedings. The Republican-dominated Texas House has scheduled a vote on the impeachment of the state’s Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, for Saturday at 1 p.m. In February, Mr. Paxton agreed to pay $3.3 million in a settlement with the four former senior aides. Many of the investigators’ findings about Mr. Paxton were already known publicly, from the allegations made in the aides’ lawsuit. In 2015, his first year in that office, Mr. Paxton was charged with felonies related to securities fraud and booked in a county jail outside Dallas.

☆ Texas lawmaker, who previously said drag queen story hours would sexualize children, should be expelled for sexual misconduct with a teenage intern, committee says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Texas legislative committee recommended a lawmaker be expelled for inappropriate conduct, per the Associated Press. The committee report said GOP Rep. Bryan Slaton, 45, had sex with a 19-year-old intern. Slaton and his attorney did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on Sunday, but his attorneys previously called the claims "outrageous" and "false," the AP reported. "Children don't need to be focused on sex and sexualization," he said in an interview last year, the AP previously reported. The intern was "really dizzy" and had "split vision," the committee report found.

The proposals have alarmed voting rights activists and state Democrats, who tried and failed last year to block a GOP-backed overhaul of election laws — a priority of Gov. The 62 voting rights-related bills Texas lawmakers have already prefiled represent nearly all prefiled voting rights legislation across the country, according to a review of prefiled bills by Voting Rights Lab and NBC News. An election police forceRepublican-authored Texas bills, such as HB 549 and SB 220, propose creating a system of state “election marshals,” who would investigate allegations of violations of election and voting laws, and file criminal charges when warranted. Harsher penaltiesLegislation such as HB 39, HB 52, HB 222, HB 397 and SB 166 aims to raise the penalty for election and voting rights crimes to a felony from a misdemeanor. “All my bill does is restore the felony punishment for illegal voting,” Texas Rep. David Spiller, the author of HB 52, said in an interview.

Search resuls for: "Murr"

10 mentions found