Ken Paxton impeachment: AG's outside attorney testifies about his experience working for him
AUSTIN, Texas - On day 6 of the Ken Paxton impeachment trial, House prosecutors spent the day trying to show that Paxton used his staff and an outside attorney to help a political donor.
"The call from Mr. Paxton came on your birthday," Defense Attorney Dan Cogdell asked Attorney Brandon Cammack.
"Yes, it was on my birthday," Cammack responded.
"You’re thinking, what a good birthday present," Cogdell said.
"Something like that, at the time, I was thinking what a coincidence," Cammack said.
A young lawyer from Houston was eager to help Attorney General Ken Paxton.
"And look at you now, Mr. Cammack it didn’t turn out to be as perfect as it seemed," Cogdell said.
"Never in a million years would I think I’d be called for an impeachment hearing," Cammack said.
Cammack said he didn’t know what he was getting into. Paxton had called him up wanting him to be a special prosecutor for an investigation.
"He also said that the people in his office who were not, they weren't doing, they weren't investigating the case. They weren't working on it. You know, at that point, I learned that there were some federal agents and people, I guess, in positions of power who were involved in that, and, you know, and he made a comment that you need to have some guts to work on a case like this," Cammack said.
The case involved political donor Nate Paul who claimed federal and state authorities were involved in a conspiracy to take his real estate holdings.
"I was fired up about the opportunity to do it," Cammack said.
That’s when his conversations with Paxton, Paul, and his attorney, Michael Wynne, began. Cammack started issuing several grand jury subpoenas.
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"Were you receiving from Mr. Wynn regularly information of people to include on the grand jury subpoenas?" House prosecutor Rustin Hardin asked Cammack.
"Yes, sir," Cammack responded.
Cammack said he was running into some issues though, he didn’t have credentials for the Office of the Attorney General. He stopped issuing subpoenas after getting a cease-and-desist letter from the state. Cammack said he later met with Paxton and Paul to let out his frustration.
"I didn't ask for any of this. You guys reached out to me to come do a job, and then now you're pulling the rug out from under me, and I'm getting cease and desist letters and now my name is being thrown through the mud in the media, and it's totally new world to me. So, you know, I let that out," Cammack said.
During cross-examination, Cammack said he wasn’t trying to benefit Paul, and he was never paid for his work.
The prosecution claimed Paxton was trying to help Paul in other ways through his staff. Prosecutors claimed Paul benefited from the Attorney General’s Office intervening into the investigation of the Mitee Foundation, which whistleblower and Former Deputy Attorney General for Civil Litigation, Darren McCarty, said needed to stop.
"It was unfounded, and like I said I believed unethical, I believed it was actually attacking a charitable trust as opposed to defending the public interest of the charitable trust and I believed I had an ethical duty under our rules because we had now used the criminal justice system essentially against the Mitee Foundation," McCarty said.
Another way prosecutors claimed Paxton helped Paul was through what’s now known as the midnight letter. It put a moratorium on foreclosure sales in Texas as three of Paul’s properties were set for foreclosure.
"Who benefited from the foreclosure letter?" a House Prosecutor asked President and CEO of Amplify Credit Union Kendall Garrison.
"Nate Paul and the World Class Entities," Garrison responded.
The defense noted many of the decision Cammack made were his own and not ideas from the Attorney General, the ‘midnight decision’ was made during COVID, an unprecedented time, and the whistleblowers went straight to the FBI with their concerns without talking to their boss first.
The trial starts back up Wednesday, Sept. 13. The Senators could have a verdict by the end of the week.