How much will Paxton’s impeachment trial cost taxpayers?
AUSTIN — The Texas Senate and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have spent more than $96,000 and counting on the impeachment trial for Attorney General Ken Paxton, according to records The Dallas Morning News obtained.
The bulk of the Senate expenses — $30,648 of the $38,777.83 — were for court reporters who transcribed the trial, a cost summary that Senate Secretary Patsy Spaw provided to The News showed. Patrick, who presided over the trial, turned over additional documents that showed his office hired outside lawyers that charged nearly $57,000 to fight a suit challenging the trial rules.
The expenses provide the first glimpse into the potential price tag of the impeachment proceedings. But they represent just a sliver of the monthslong investigation and two-week trial’s total costs, which could top hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
The House Board of Managers, a group of bipartisan lawmakers and private attorneys who prosecuted the case against Paxton, said they are still adding up their total costs. On Tuesday afternoon, the board chairman’s chief of staff said many of the invoices have been submitted and are being analyzed and redacted.
“As soon as the outstanding pieces are in place and have been fully reviewed, that information will be made public in accordance with the House’s longstanding commitment to transparency,” Logan Harrison with Rep. Andrew Murr, R-junction, said in a statement.
Two private attorneys the managers hired to prosecute the case declined to provide their invoices or confirm the exact amount they billed the state, deferring to the House to release the information.
The House voted to impeach Paxton in late May for alleged abuse of office, bribery and obstruction of justice. After a 10-day trial that wrapped up Sept. 16, state senators voted mostly along party lines to clear Paxton and reinstate him to office.
Patrick, who presided over the trial, has been critical of the process and its potential cost.
Minutes after the verdict was pronounced, he gave a blistering speech in which he called the proceedings a waste of taxpayer money and blamed House Speaker Dade Phelan for what Patrick called a rushed process. He called for a full accounting of the impeachment costs, which the state auditor will begin to gather this month.
Phelan, R-beaumont, declined to comment on Tuesday.
Tony Buzbee, who led Paxton’s defense team, said Tuesday it was “unacceptable” that the House managers have not released the costs.
“One can only guess at this point what the number will be,” he said. “I think most would agree we got nothing from their efforts other than a lot of wasted time and money.”
SENATE’S IMPEACHMENT COSTS
After the impeachment trial ended, The News filed records requests with the House, Senate and Office of the Lieutenant Governor. The latter two provided records this week.
In addition to the court reporter costs, the Senate summary of costs also included $3,648 for podiums, a couple of copies of a litigation handbook and lots of file carts, hanging folders and other office products.
Sen. Drew Springer charged $714 for Yeti brand mugs, according to the records. The Muenster Republican said his office designed the mugs so senators could stay hydrated for the trial, during which time they were asked to stay in their seats. Drinks are usually not allowed in the Senate chamber.
Senators will also be paid their $221 per diem for the length of the trial. For all 31 senators, the cost amounts to nearly $7,000 per day.
Patrick submitted expenses separate from these Senate costs, according to records responsive to a News request that his office released on Tuesday. His chief of staff, general counsel and deputy general counsel traveled to Houston on state business in August and expensed around $600 in total.
Patrick also retained attorneys from Butler Snow to defend against a federal lawsuit filed by Houston farright activist Steve Hotze, who challenged the gag order and other impeachment rules. The attorneys working on the case charged between $300 and $500 an hour and billed a total of $56,790, according to the records.
Still to come: invoices for retired Dallas judge Lana Myers, who advised Patrick during the trial.
Only two other state officials in Texas have ever faced an impeachment trial, so there is little historical precedent on costs.
The Senate spent about $64,000 trying Judge O.P. Carrillo in 1975, according to the Legislative Reference Library; the House’s costs for those proceedings were estimated at $93,200. Carrillo was convicted and removed from office in January 1976.
Paxton is the first impeached Texas official to be acquitted at trial.
HOUSE’S IMPEACHMENT COSTS
The House expenses for Paxton’s impeachment could run into the six figures or higher.
The News has filed four requests for expense records with the House since the impeachment process became public in May. Steven Adrian at the House Business Office has released one invoice in that time: $5,000 that the public relations firm New West Communications billed to the House Committee on Investigating for services rendered in June.
On Tuesday, Adrian said he did not have “any records responsive” to The News’ latest request for impeachment cost records such as invoices or payments made to anyone associated with the impeachment probe or trial including lawyers, paralegals, researchers and investigators.
Lead prosecutors Rusty Hardin and Dick Deguerin charged $500 an hour, plus travel expenses, according to a copy of their contracts The News obtained through a public records request. In June, Hardin said his team was working at a fraction of their usual hourly rate of $1,500.
There appears to be no limit on the total costs.
Hardin and Deguerin told The News this week their invoices have been filed and are being scrutinized before payment is made. They declined to say how much they charged the state and acknowledged they may not receive the total amount.
Saying he was “not authorized” to provide further detail, Deguerin said he billed less than $500,000 for him and his colleague Mark White’s work on the case.
Hardin, the lead prosecutor whose team consisted of several lawyers and paralegals from his Houston firm, would only confirm he billed the state less than $3.3 million — the cost of a contentious whistleblower settlement that spurred the impeachment investigation.
Hardin and Deguerin said House officials will decide when to release records about the costs.
“We haven’t been paid anything since we started the representation,” Hardin added.
Harrison, Murr’s chief of staff, noted some invoices have yet to be submitted. Neither he nor Adrian responded to questions about why The News was told no records responsive to public information requests existed.
Additional costs will include the hours billed by Harriet O’neill, a former state court justice who worked with Hardin and Deguerin, and the team of lawyers the House Committee on Investigating hired to probe the corruption allegations against Paxton. O’neill did not return calls Tuesday.
Erin Epley, one of the investigators who also worked on the prosecution, said she has not submitted her invoices yet. She told The News she will bill only for interview trips to Austin, where she said she stayed with family to save money, and for a two-week hotel stay during the trial.
State agencies regularly contract with outside lawyers. Paxton’s own office has increasingly turned to outside counsel in recent years and has paid more than half a million dollars to private lawyers handling the whistleblower lawsuit against the attorney general.
Hiring outside lawyers to handle the impeachment was appropriate and consistent with legal precedent, said David Gonzalez, a trial lawyer who worked as a special prosecutor on Rick Perry’s 2016 abuse of office case. Lawyers in that case worked below the typical market rate and are less conflicted than a government lawyer.
“We are spending $25 million dollars in construction to replace the roof of the Capitol,” Gonzalez said. “I think we all believe what happens under the dome is far more valuable.”
PAXTON’S IMPEACHMENT
COSTS
Paxton brought in private attorneys to represent him in the impeachment trial, including Buzbee and Dan Cogdell, a Houston attorney who is also defending Paxton against eight-year-old securities fraud charges.
Paxton said in an interview “the whole thing” cost more than $4 million.
His lawyers have declined to answer questions about their rates and how they’re being paid. On Tuesday, Buzbee said the impeachment defense team hasn’t calculated their costs yet.
“The most important distinction here is that any monies spent on General Paxton’s winning defense was not public money, period. Moreover, any monies spent on the Paxton defense will be money well spent,” he said.
Paxton can tap his campaign account, which had a balance of $2.7 million in June. He could also potentially set up a legal defense fund to pay his lawyers, which Paxton has done in the past, though that route has stringent rules that allow contributions only from family and friends.
Six staffers from the attorney general’s office, including Solicitor General Judd Stone, took leave from their state agency jobs to join Paxton’s impeachment defense team. First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster, who briefly filled in when Paxton was impeached and suspended from the job, waived agency ethics rules to allow them to take extended leaves to defend their boss.
The staffers intended to return to work after the trial was over, according to memos they sent agency leaders.