The legal counsel that’s going to defend the suspended Texas attorney general (TXAG) during his impeachment trial said on Wednesday that their client will escape a conviction.
High-profile Houston attorney Tony Buzbee of The Buzbee Law Firm, who confirmed on Tuesday that Paxton tabbed him to lead his defense, chastised the proceedings as a “sham,” Austin NBC affiliate KXAN reported.
“Ken Paxton will never, never be convicted by the Senate — not on this evidence, not with this record and not when the fact is the allegations are completely untrue,” Buzbee said, according to the station.
The trial is slated to take place in the upper chamber of the Texas Legislature later this summer, Austin Journal reported.
Buzbee initially took to social media on Friday to say Paxton, a Republican, sought his services, but deleted the post.
According to Houston Daily, the Texas House of Representatives voted 121-23 late last month to impeach Paxton, just a few days after a House panel recommended that he face 20 articles of impeachment.
At the helm of the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) on an interim basis is John B. Scott, who previously served as secretary of state (SOS) just six months prior.
Facing off against Buzbee are fellow Bayou City attorneys Dick DeGuerin and Rusty Hardin, who will prosecute the case against Paxton, who was reelected to a third term as the state’s top law enforcement official last fall.
Per KXAN, Buzbee, who addressed what will become one of the most prominent cases he has argued in, said the articles of impeachment are unfounded.
“The impeachment articles that have been laid out by the House are baloney,” the attorney said in the report. “Just so we’re clear: The allegations are untrue. They are false.”
As part of his suspension, Paxton won’t receive any pay, the Texas comptroller’s office told the station.