STATEMENT OF TONY BUZBEE ON RECENT PAXTON IMPEACHMENT MOTIONS
“We have filed a Motion to Quash and a Request for Bill of Particulars asking the Texas Senate to order the House to produce information consistent with the law and Senate Rules. Motion to Squash states, ‘The Articles fail to allege with even a semblance of particularity the manner and means by which Attorney General Paxton committed an impeachable offense, depriving him of the constitutionally required notice sufficient to prepare his defense.’ The Request for Bill of Particulars states the Articles of Impeachment are ‘fatally deficient’, and ‘contrary to clear constitutional mandates.’ None of the Articles provide the Attorney General with constitutionally adequate notice of the charges, and forcing him to proceed on any of these Articles will violate the Texas Constitution and Texas law.”
STATEMENTS FROM THE MOTION TO QUASH AND THE REQUEST FOR BILL OF PARTICULARS
“Prior to this one, every impeachment in Texas history was the product of months of open investigation, public testimony, and a process transparent for all Texans. This candid past practice led, when necessary, to Articles of Impeachment that accused a particular official of specific conduct that broke one or more identified laws. Not so for this House—or for these Articles. The product of a deliberately clandestine process, the Articles of Impeachment which serve as the charging document against the Attorney General are unconstitutionally vague.”
“Both Texas and federal law require the House to prefer Articles that speak plainly: the Articles must say what acts the Attorney General took and identify what laws he is alleged to have broken to justify this impeachment. He cannot be impeached on an allegation…”
“Without any public inquiry or explanation during the investigation, and without sufficient detail in the Articles—here, the charging instrument for the Court of Impeachment—it is both impossible for the public to understand the allegations against their Attorney General and for the Attorney General’s legal team to prepare his defense. There are few names, no dates, and none of the details that Texas law requires in a charging instrument.”
“These Articles are fatally deficient, particularly in comparison to those that came before. Contrary to clear constitutional mandates, a reader is left to guess as to the specific claims the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt to support each Article. None of the Articles provide the Attorney General with constitutionally adequate notice of the charges, and forcing him to proceed on any of these Articles will violate the Texas Constitution and Texas law. The need for specificity and particularity for each Article is of heightened importance in the context of the first impeachment of a statewide elected officer in over a century.”
“For the foregoing reasons, and for the reasons set forth in greater detail in the contemporaneously filed Motion to Quash, the House Board of Manager should be required to file a bill of particulars that pleads with specificity and particularly each of the elements…”