Newly tabbed Paxton counsel Buzbee: Impeachment is 'fatally flawed'

A high-profile Houston attorney said on Tuesday that he’s going to represent the suspended Texas Attorney General (TXAG) Ken Paxton in impeachment proceedings against the latter, according to a report from The Texas Tribune. 

The Austin-based online publication reported that Tony Buzbee of The Buzbee Law Firm confirmed he’ll lead Paxton’s defense in the trial slated to take place in the upper chamber of the Texas Legislature later this summer.

Buzbee initially took to social media on Friday to say Paxton, a Republican, sought his services, but deleted the post. 

Now that he’ll defend the embattled TXAG, the attorney slammed the impeachment as “fatally flawed,” The Texas Tribune reported. 

“I will provide further details at that time, which will include our hopes that the process in the Senate will be fair, reasoned and transparent,” Paxton said in a new Instagram post.

Facing off against Buzbee are fellow Bayou City attorneys Dick DeGuerin and Rusty Hardin, who will prosecute the case against Paxton, who was reelected to a third term as the state’s top law enforcement official last fall. 

DeGuerin and Hardin, who boast larger-than-life courtroom personas like their foe on the other side of the bench, told Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) affiliate WFAA that their case is “stronger than horseradish.” 

“I think the facts are much worse than either one of us guessed, that we did not know until last week and started reading,” Hardin said, WFAA reported.

According to Houston Daily, the Texas House of Representatives voted 121-23 late last month to impeach Paxton, just a few days after a House panel recommended that he face 20 articles of impeachment. 

At the helm of the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) on an interim basis is John B. Scott, who previously served as secretary of state (SOS) just six months prior.