In a scathing post-mortem of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's impeachment trial, Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick lacked the skill and neutrality to preside over the proceedings and that those legal inquiries should be overseen by an experienced judge.

"I recommend that, like almost every other impeachment trial in U.S. history, any future Impeachment tribunal select an experienced jurist with a strong reputation for neutrality to preside," Eckhardt said.

Eckhardt's remarks came in a written debriefing to the Senate Journal that she titled a "message in a bottle" to future impeachment courts. Her letter, obtained by the American-Statesman and expected to be made public this week, presents an unsparing evaluation of Patrick, who as the Senate's presiding officer has unmatched power over legislation and committee assignments and, as such, is rarely challenged publicly by members of the 31-person chamber.

Her criticism builds upon her concerns from this summer when Eckhardt was among just three senators who voted against the rules the Senate proposed for the trial, citing Patrick's outsized influence on the proceedings.