You Can Indict a Ham Sandwich-Testimony Penley, Missy Cary, Gregg COX, and Margaret Moore.
September 11, 2023
Day 5 of the Ken Paxton Impeachment Trial began with Mark Penley, the House’s fifth witness in their case. Penley was supposed to investigate the Nate Paul allegation; but, he confessed that he never opened a file. He simply did not investigate when he said that he would do so. The AG’s Office technical examiners who looked at Paul’s metadata allegation called the metadata evidence “inconclusive.”
Penley testified that none of the co-conspirators took documents to the FBI on September 30, 2020. Instead, the co-conspirators sat around a table with the FBI and Johnny Sutton (the criminal lawyer for all of the co-conspirators) for four hours to “tell the entire story.” Witness interview 101 (like Barney Fife level law enforcement) is to interview witnesses separately. Witnesses should be instructed to avoid discussing details of the alleged incident with other witnesses. Witnesses should not hear statements from others because they may be influenced by that information.
But, but, but Penley had “circumstantial evidence” against Paxton.
Mitch Little cross-examined this former federal prosecutor on the fact that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals [the federal appellate court covering Texas] has held that a federal investigation is not an official proceeding, so it is impossible to obstruct a federal investigation.
Penley’s contemporaneous notes show that:
· Paxton was “embarrassed” because Penley and Maxwell said they would investigate Nate Paul’s allegations and did nothing
· Paxton told Penley to “seek the truth”
· Paxton told Penley to “let the results be what they are”
Penley testified that he has “agreed to discuss fee arrangements” with Johnny Sutton, his lawyer of the last three years. Penley has paid nothing to Sutton. Penley has not received any invoices and does not have a fee arrangement with Sutton. So, Penley, has received free legal services for three years.
In sum, Penley would never, ever consider investigating law enforcement, especially federal law enforcement; so, the idea of investigating Paul’s claims were a non-starter with Penley, even though he promised to investigate. He was horrified that Paxton had a strong distrust of law enforcement.
Missy Cary, former Deputy AG for Gossip and career Austin government bureaucrat lawyer (same as her husband), was eating alone (shocker) at the Galaxy Café in Austin in Spring 2018 when she allegedly overheard Paxton’s then-mistress, Laura Olson, speaking about Paxton. Cary followed Olson (creepy) and took a picture of the alleged red car that Olson was supposedly driving. Later in her testimony, Cary said that she was not sure if she actually saw Olson. What? Cary immediately went to Paxton to “warn” him about her observations. Cary testified that she has previously counseled public officials who found themselves in “similar situations.”
In questioning Cary, House hired lawyer (“former” high ranking Harris County ADA and Public Integrity Prosecutor) Terese Buess gave a master class is how not to conduct a direct examination. See the theme?
Cary did not go to the FBI with the other co-conspirators on September 30, 2020. She was subpoenaed by a grand jury in 2021 and cooperated with that subpoena.
On cross-examination with Tony Buzbee, Cary admitted that her memory is not very good.
Q. [by Buzbee] Your memory is not very good, is it?
A. [by Cary] No sir, it’s not.
Buzbee asked Cary about the affair:
Q. [by Buzbee] Imagine if we impeached everybody here in Austin that had an affair. We’d be impeached for the next 100 years, wouldn’t we?
A. I don’t think I should answer that question in this chamber, particularly.
Cary advised Paxton that he had the authority to sign the outside counsel contract with Brandon Cammack.
Cary also testified that Jeff Mateer authorized the set aside of $50,000 to hire Johnny Sutton (the co-conspirators lawyer).
Next, Gregg Cox, former Travis County Assistant District Attorney (and current Hays County Assistant District Attorney) testified about a mysterious memo that he created that included a laundry list of potential offenses committed by Paxton as a “preliminary investigation to determine whether to move forward with an investigation.” The feds instructed Travis County to stand down per Cox.
Cox did not even know that Rick Perry was indicted for exercising his veto power. Wow. Where has this guy been?
Well, immediately after drafting the preliminary investigation memo, Cox applied to work for Paxton at the Texas Attorney General’s Office. AFTER he wrote the “Paxton bad” memo. His recommendation for the job – Margaret Moore.
It was a red flag to me that Cox previously worked at the Texas District and County Attorneys Association (TDCAA), the advocacy group for Texas district and county attorneys. This organization has been a problem for some time in Austin. One of the TDCAA Advisory Committee members is Charles A. Rosenthal, Jr., the former Harris County District Attorney. Chuck had a longtime affair with his secretary while he was married to an FBI agent (that did not force him to resign or be removed). He was forced to resign after it was revealed that he sent racist and sexist emails and testified in a contempt hearing (after deleting some of the racist and sexist emails) that he was impaired on drugs and alcohol while serving in office.
Chuck worked with and hired most of these House lawyers you see now.
The TDCAA Board of Trustees is filled with some familiar names:
Rusty Hardin, Jr.
Mindy Montford
Johnny Keane Sutton
What in the hell is actually going on here?
Former democrat Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore was the final witness of the day. Moore continued to claim that she was “friends” with Paxton, but does that make sense to you? The liberal democrat district attorney of the Peoples Republic of Travis County (who formerly worked for Greg Abbott) is “friends” with the staunch conservative Paxton?
Moore was forced to admit that her office drafted the grand jury subpoenas (that identified Brandon Cammack as a “Special Prosecutor”). Her office sent these subpoenas to Cammack.
Another admission: the Travis County District Attorney’s Office instructed Paul to not notarize his formal complaint.
So, why would Moore testify against Paxton with clearly an axe to grind? After losing in her own primary in 2020, Moore was forced to hang out her own shingle. Could it be that she wanted a job from Paxton too?
Remember: this is the House’s case. They have the burden to prove their allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.
Questions
If Paxton asked the Travis County District Attorney’s Office to investigate Nate Paul’s complaints, why didn’t the Travis County District Attorney’s Office investigate?
Why are these Austin bureaucrats so afraid of law enforcement?
Is it in the realm of possibility that law enforcement did something wrong?
Is it in the realm of possibility that people are working against Nate Paul to steal valuable real estate?
Is Paxton’s mistake selecting poor leaders (like Mateer, Bangert, Vassar, Penley, Cary, Maxwell)?
How in the world does someone like Cary get herself in a position to advise multiple people in government about their affairs?
Who else did she advise?
Could this be the Bush junta coming together with the Harris County Fired ADA Club against Paxton?
Was this impeachment debacle cooked up over at the TDCAA office? Wouldn’t be the first. See Pat Lykos.
Why is Terese Buess so bad at asking questions?
Are elected officials not allowed to offer constituent services?
Are elected officials not allowed to solve problems for their constituents?
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