Resty Hardin and Laura Olson does not testify. Quite a day in court and you will not see it in the mainstream media. Clocks out on the House Managers.
September 13, 2023
At the beginning of the day, Lieutenant Governor Patrick announced that the House had approximately five hours remaining and Paxton had approximately ten hours remaining. Rule 17 of Senate Resolution No. 35 outlines the time limitations for the parties with each side having 24 hours total for presentation of evidence. Each side does have 60 minutes for “rebuttal evidence.” To be clear, the times reported by Patrick include the time to cross-examine witnesses; so, said differently, as of the beginning of yesterday’s trial testimony, the House had five hours and it is possible that they could not have sufficient time remaining to cross-examine defense witnesses.
The House began the day by calling their next witness: Laura Olson, the mistress and former Campbell staffer. It is important to note that Paxton publicly admitted the affair with Ms. Olson; so, there is really no need to call this witness other than to cause embarrassment. Although the House called this witness at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, none of the twenty lawyers for the House apparently realized that they violated the twenty-four hour notice rule (each side is required to give the other side twenty-four hours notice before calling a witness). Since the House noticed Ms. Olson at 3:53 p.m. on Tuesday, they were not eligible to call Ms. Olson as a witness until 3:53 p.m. on Wednesday. Does this demonstrate that Team House is in total chaos?
After that big mistake, the House called Ray Chester, a lawyer at McGinnis Lochridge (the same firm that employs former Harris County Republican Chair Paul Simspon). Chester has represented the Mitte Foundation since 2016. The Mitte Foundation is a family foundation that made four separate investment tranches with Nate Paul. The investment at issue is a $3 million investment that the foundation made with Nate Paul in 2010-2011. The Mitte Foundation will receive a return of $23 million on this investment – seven times the capital outlay. Article I claims that “Paxton harmed the Mitte Foundation in an effort to benefit Paul” but the truth appears to be that the Mitte Foundation is making out like a bandit.
Drew Wicker was the next witness. As Paxton’s body man, Wicker spent a tremendous amount of time with Paxton (“at least eight hours, normally closer to probably ten”). Buzbee cut to the chase:
Q. [by Buzbee] You’re not accusing Paxton of any wrongdoing, right?
A. [by Wicker] I’m not accusing anybody of anything, no.
Q. Are you accusing him [Paxton] of bribery?
A. [by Wicker] I am not.
The House used Erin Epley to present Chester and Wicker. Some trial watchers seemed to think that Epley was an improvement over Hardin. The truth is that Epley is the “lead investigator” hired by the House General Investigating Committee. She and her cohorts, Mark Donnelly, Terese Buess, and Donna Cameron, started this “investigation” on the wrong track by failing to interview and question witnesses and test the multilevel hearsay and rank speculation now offered as evidence in this trial.
After an extended break, Dan Patrick announced that Laura Olson was present, but is deemed unavailable to testify. And that was that.
Then, the House called Blake Brickman who was hired by Mateer. Brickman appeared to be very aggressive and repeatedly testified to things that he obviously did not have personal knowledge of whatsoever. His testimony was filled with overstatements and exaggerations and really just came out as more “possibilities” and “maybes” that we have heard about in this trial.
Once Rusty Hardin finally finished with the witness, he accidentally rested his case.
Buzbee handled the mistake well and told the Court that he accepted Hardin’s rest and was ready to move forward with his directed verdict motions. Ultimately, these motions were withdrawn and the defense called its first witness: Professor Michael J. Gerhard
The House has completely mismanaged their time and failed to present any credible evidence. Lots of Captain Obvious comments today from the mainstream and progressive folks on X.
At the end of the day, Paxton let us know that he will appear with Tucker Carlson next week. Team Trump is ready.
Questions
What are we even doing here? The House clearly did not meet their burden of proof.
How many millions of dollars has the House wasted? Is it more than the $3 million settlement figure?
Will the defense call Brickman? It would be fun to see Buzbee or Little examine this witness.
Will the jury do a scene visit to the Paxton home in Tarrytown?
Elements of Articles of Impeachment
These are the elements of the articles of impeachment with the vote history by the Senators.
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EPLEY WAS A VERY IMPRESSIVE LAWYER. She absolutely gave substance to the millions of LAWYER jokes.
Her passion obviously came from a life of proving she was capable of being a great divorce lawyer. It shows in her inability to keep a game face at her obvious mismanagement.
That anger also opened the door for buzbee. She very much made the accusation senator paxton was involved. Her obvious defense whenbshe realized it is what threw her game. I am surprised that more people did not catch what buzbee told her. Senate rules apply. Trial rules do not supercede Senate rules.
When she accused buzbee of manufacturing evidence that also enlisted a quick backpeddle.
In general Patrick has been steady. But he was giving her more leeway than buzbee.
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