Sen. Sarah Eckhardt slams Lt. Gov. Patrick's performance in Ken Paxton impeachment trial
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.
"Patrick is not a lawyer," Eckhardt wrote in the recent letter. "This was evident in his inconsistent and often legally indefensible rulings on motions and objections. Also, he does not have a reputation for neutrality. This was evident in his fundraising immediately prior to the trial and his statements of extreme bias from the bench immediately after the verdict was returned."
Patrick's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The Senate rules allowed for Patrick to recuse himself and hand the trial's management to a senator or to a jurist who is not up for reelection next year. Instead, he hired a judge to assist him — Lana Myers, a retired Republican appeals court justice from Dallas.
From the bench Saturday, Patrick unloaded on the Texas House for advancing the impeachment to the Senate in what he called a rushed process that did not afford Paxton or his lawyers an opportunity to challenge evidence before trial. Patrick said he will look to pass legislation to allow for a defense counsel to examine witnesses before the House takes an impeachment vote. He also called for an accounting of all taxpayer money spent on the impeachment proceedings, which he followed through on this week in a formal request to the state's auditor.
Patrick's criticism — unusual for a judge — raised new questions about his biases after his campaign accepted $3 million this summer from a pro-Paxton political action committee. In her letter, Eckhardt said that, although Patrick called for a fundraising moratorium during the trial, senators in future proceedings should establish one at a much earlier date.
Read the full story here.
As we await the Senate Journal to be published, see my full entry below.
