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.

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