AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Texas paid over $5.1 million to prepare and conduct Attorney General Ken Paxton’s 2023 impeachment trial, according to a state audit ordered by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick a year and a half ago following Paxton’s acquittal.
“As I said from the very beginning, taxpayers have a right to know how much of their tax dollars were spent on former Speaker Dade Phelan’s failed political gambit,” Patrick said in a statement following the audit’s release Friday.
Patrick, who served as the trial’s presiding judge in the Senate, has decried the trial as a waste of taxpayer dollars that was improperly “rammed through” the House. In his Friday statement, Patrick accused former House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, of withholding House expenditure records related to the “shameful epoch” in state history.
Phelan has defended his leadership of the House and vote to impeach Paxton, and previously released campaign ads condemning Paxton’s conduct. State Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston, an impeachment manager, said her team presented “overwhelming evidence” of Paxton's corruption.
Costs over $5.1 million
Costs for the House exceeded $4.4 million, with over $4.04 million of that going to contracted professional services including attorneys. The Senate’s total cost was over $435,000, and the Office of the Attorney General incurred over $229,000.
Total travel costs were more than $61,000, and the total for supplies was over $15,000, according to the audit.
Those costs fueled the two-week trial in September 2023. Paxton was accused of multiple counts of abusing his office, including efforts to assist a friend, political donor and real estate investor Nate Paul.
RELATED | Austin real estate developer Nate Paul pleads guilty, ending federal fraud caseBoth sides employed high-profile attorneys. House managers retained Rusty Hardin and Dick DeGuerin to put on their case. Paxton hired Tony Buzbee and Dan Cogdell. Paxton has not disclosed how much his legal defense cost and where the money originated.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Paxton impeachment cost exceeded $5.1 million, audit finds )
Also on site :
- (Video) Person stabbed after two cut line for Pokémon cards in Bay Area: PD
- Police investigation underway on Boardman Street near Monroe Avenue
- US fighter jet intercepts suspicious plane over Trump’s golf club