Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton used multiple cellphones and an alias on a ride-sharing app to conceal an affair, and pressured top aides to help a donor now facing criminal charges, according to new documents made public by investigators leading the impeachment of the embattled Republican.
I feel like the article title here buried the lede. If we impeached everyone who had an affair, we wouldn’t have any politicians left. (Which isn’t entirely unappealing, mind you, but that’s beside the point.) Once I got to the parts of the article about him committing securities fraud and unlawfully using the power of his office to shield his cronies from legal trouble, I thought “why didn’t you lead with that?”
Yeah it’s not illegal to have an affair and use multiple phones, even an alias. It could be illegal to do those things to commit fraud. It’s not just the lede, it’s the reason we care at all.
Yeah, but did my mans pay for an abortion? That’s the juicy shit.
No, but not because he’s anti abortion, but because he’s a cheap bastard
This is the best summary I could come up with:
More than 4,000 pages of documents, most of which were publicly filed late Thursday and include emails and text messages, are the foundation of House Republicans’ case that Paxton abused his office and should be ousted at the end of a historic impeachment trial that begins Sept. 5 in the Texas Capitol.
Paxton, who has been suspended from office since being impeached by the GOP-controlled Texas House in May, has broadly denied wrongdoing and waved off the accusations as politically motivated.
The documents provide the fullest picture to date of accusations that have shadowed Paxton since eight of his highest-ranking deputies, including Penley, staged an extraordinary revolt in 2020 and reported him to the FBI.
They alleged that Paxton had unlawfully used the power of his office in an attempt to shield Austin real estate developer Nate Paul from legal troubles.
In December 2019, Penley told investigators, Paxton met him at a Starbucks in a wealthy Dallas enclave and asked him to take a phone call with him inside a car in the parking lot.
Paxton is also facing multiple legal troubles beyond the impeachment, including a securities fraud indictment from 2015 that has yet to go to trial and an ongoing FBI investigation.
The original article contains 576 words, the summary contains 204 words. Saved 65%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Well done, bot
Reading this, part of me wishes his wife wasn’t barred from doing anything during the trial. Another part of me knows she’d probably be on some “stand by your man” bullshit because it’s politically expedient.
used multiple cellphones and an alias
i.e., the Rex Heuermann method
