whiterock said:
Osodecentx said:
whiterock said:
Osodecentx said:
whiterock said:
Aliceinbubbleland said:
Quote:
Documents released Tuesday by the House impeachment managers reveal closer ties between the contractor who renovated Attorney General Ken Paxton's home and Nate Paul, the financially troubled Austin real estate investor who was accused of bribing Paxton by paying for the work.
The contractor, Kevin Wood, swapped emails with Paul to provide updates about the home upgrades. The documents also show Wood was asked to testify in Paxton's trial, but would have invoked his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.
"Guys just finished applying 2nd coat of paint sealer," Wood wrote in one exchange with Paul, who asked for pictures.
House board of managers chair, Junction state Rep. Andrew Murr, and vice chair, Houston state Rep. Ann Johnson, said in a public letter that they were releasing the documents because of "the need to provide the highest level of transparency for the people of Texas." The evidence didn't come out during the two-week impeachment trial for a variety of reasons, they said, including time constraints and procedural decisions.
The documents released Tuesday show Wood performed the bulk of the house work and corresponded directly with Paul about the improvements, giving him updates and coordinating the use of storage facilities during the renovations. Wood's attorney said he was never paid for the project.
Paxton's lawyers argued during trial that the attorney general paid Cupertino Builders about $120,000 for the home upgrades, which they said proved he did not receive the work for free or as a bribe.
House prosecutors had alleged the six-figure wire transfer was a cover-up payment, made hours after Paxton's top deputies reported their boss to federal authorities for the alleged bribery. Cupertino Builders had not yet filed organization papers in Texas and didn't do so until weeks later, state records show. The company was dissolved less than two years later.
Not sure the above proves anything but it was interesting Paxton, Paul and Laura and now new evidence that Wood was included in all who would take the 5th if called to testify.
I'm surprised Ranger couldn't arrange a "wire" that would have proved what is being speculated. The House didn't really provide the damaging evidence we needed to prove this crook and his friends are crooks of the highest order. They are skilled in politics of avoiding incremination.
Phelan's is proving his critics right. His assaults on Patrick prove he's not pursuing good government. He's pursuing conservative Republicahelan?ns.
Is Patrick pursuing good government when he criticizes Phelan?
By any reasonable standard. Phelan wasted millions of taxpayer dollars on a hasty, ill-prepared, ill-presented, and most of all unnecessary impeachment of a man who just comfortably won re-election in which the issues in question were all public knowledge. The prudent course of action for an impeachment is to drip-drip-drip-drip the evidence out and drive down the public support for said official, or better yet, wait for an actual conviction. But such would not have removed Paxton in a helpful time frame for Phelan and his supporters (mostly Democrats....). So they had to move immediately. How they could have miscalculated so badly about their case? How could they not have read the mood of the Senate? How could they have so badly misread the mood of the party and the public? It was political incompetence of the highest order. And now, Phelan has not only picked a very ill-advised battle and lost it, but he's doubling down on it. No conciliation. No quiet tactical retreat to reorganize for a future attack. Oh no. He's turning the schism he opened into a full-scale civil war between institutions, elected officials, and within the GOP. And he's doing it purely to rehabilitate his own reputation. Won't work.
It would be one thing if Phelan was just a bumbling doofus who couldn't get anything done. The guy is a full-blown menace, to the Republican agenda in particular and the larger imperative for good governance.
But he made you feel good, slaked your hate toward anyone who's conservative enough to embarrass you, so there's that.
75% of Republicans in the Texas House vote to impeach a crook, and you side with the crook because Democrats were unanimous. The Tx Senate was 1 vote shy of conviction. Now Texas Republicans will have to deal with their AG being indicted. There will be a very public trial, probably during an election year.
You are grasping. The official Senate vote failed by considerably more than 1 vote. The rest is spin. The House voted by the margin it did for a reason - the Speaker whipped the vote. Quite a few reps went along to remain effective for their district. (Mine did not.) And I also made a point you have studiously ignored - even those who supported the impeachment should be angry at Phelan - he did a really, really poor job of building the case for impeachment, on multiple levels. Totally incompetent. If Paxton really is THAT guilty, getting a conviction should have been easy, right?
4% of Congressional Republicans join 100% of Democrat caucus to oust a Republican Speaker, so naturally you take the side of the Democrats. The US House of Representatives is in chaos and 4% of Republicans are responsible.
Geez, you can't get anything right. I took the side of the Republicans in Congress, who need and deserve a Speaker who will stick to the agreements he made. I'm not talking about radical things. I"m talking about simple things, like regular order on budgets, 72 hour minimum for posting bills prior to voting (to allow members to actually read the bills they're voting on) that no sane Republican would have a problem with.
Try winning an election without Independents. You guys aren't growing the party, you're making the tent smaller.
LOL we added 14m votes to the party in 2020 and won the popular vote in the mid-terms by 4m. You're the smaller tent guy, wanting to run off all the Trump supporters (2/3 of the party).
Phelan is gonna get rolled in special session. Will be fun to watch. Also will be fun to watch Gov and LtGov pile in against him in the next primary. You can take it to the bank that both of them are tired of dealing with such a lightweight.
These guys funded the primary campaign against Abbott. Now hosting Fuentes and funding campaign against Republican House members. Some Republicans apparently are comfortable with anti-semites and Hitler apologists (Fuentes brags about this).
CONSERVATIVE PAC LEADER'S MEETING WITH WHITE SUPREMACIST NICK FUENTES LEADS TO CONDEMNATIONS, ESCALATES GOP INFIGHTINGTHE TRIBUNE REPORTED SUNDAY THAT
JONATHAN STICKLAND, THE LEADER OF DEFEND TEXAS LIBERTY PAC, HOSTED FUENTES, A WHITE SUPREMACIST AND ANTISEMITE, IN FORT WORTH FOR NEARLY 7 HOURS ON FRIDAY. PHELAN CALLED ON LT. GOV. DAN PATRICK AND OTHER OFFICIALS TO REDIRECT ANY MONEY THEY RECEIVED FROM THE PAC.
House Speaker Dade Phelan strongly condemned the leader of a major conservative PAC and demanded that elected officials including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick return money they received from the group, one day after
The Texas Tribune reported that it had
recently hosted well-known white supremacist Nick Fuentes."This (is) not just a casual misstep," Phelan said in a statement. "It's indicative of the moral, political rot that has been festering in a certain segment of our party for far too long.
Anti-Semitism, bigotry and Hitler apologists should find no sanctuary in the Republican party. Period. We cannot and must not tolerate the tacit endorsement of such vile ideologies."The Tribune reported Sunday that Jonathan Stickland, the leader of Defend Texas Liberty PAC and a related consulting firm, Pale Horse Strategies, hosted Fuentes in Fort Worth for
nearly 7 hours on Friday. Fuentes is an avowed admirer of Adolf Hitler, has called for "holy war" against Jews and said that "all I want is revenge against my enemies and a total Aryan victory."Acting on a tip, a Tribune reporter and photographer observed Fuentes and others including
Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted of homicide after killing two Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020 enter the one-story office of Pale Horse Strategies in Fort Worth.
Republican Party of Texas Chair Matt Rinaldi also was inside the office for about 45 minutes, though Rinaldi told the Tribune that he had no idea that Fuentes was there, condemned him outright and said he wouldn't meet with him "in a million years."Defend Texas Liberty is funded by two West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks who are also Attorney General Ken Paxton's biggest donors. Earlier this year, the group made headlines after it
gave $3 million in loans and donations to Patrick ahead of Paxton's impeachment trial in the Texas Senate, over which Patrick presided.
Despite his open adoration for Hitler and his violent rhetoric, Fuentes has not been entirely cast out of right-wing circles. Hard-right Republicans, including U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona, have spoken at Fuentes' annual conference alongside avowed white supremacists.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/10/09/dade-phelan-speaker-nick-fuentes-dan-patrick-defend-texas-liberty/
