It’s been an enjoyable Friday watching Trump (and his evil spawn) getting reamed in NY Civil Court. Not to mention pending criminal prosecutions of Trump. It remains to be seen if SCOTUS will keep the brake pedal down on Trump’s DC trial but in Manhattan this week Trumpy was told in no uncertain terms that he’s 1) an indicted criminal defendant, and 2) his butt better be in court on March 25 because his criminal trial is starting. Quite a week, but at the late-night ad pitches say “But wait – there’s MORE!” It turns out another horrible Republican P.O.S. who’s been in the news is also going to be in court in a criminal trial soon. Texas AG Ken Paxton fought for ten years to avoid it but come mid April Paxton’s going to be sitting as the defendant in a criminal court proceeding too!
As this article from The Independent reports:
A judge on Friday rejected Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ’s attempts to throw out felony securities fraud charges that have shadowed the Republican for nearly a decade.
The decision by state District Judge Andrea Beall, an elected Democrat, keeps Paxton on track for an April 15 trial on charges that he duped investors in a tech startup.
If when it comes to somehow escaping legal accountability Trump seems to have had “9 to the 9th power to the 9th power” lives, Paxton has had at least 9 to the 9th power (81). He even managed to barely survive a conviction when the Texas State House impeached him. The Senate (which included his wife who should have but of course didn’t recuse herself) didn’t quite have the votes to convict him. Some have since expressed buyer’s remorse I should note. Anyway the dude’s a political survivor of the highest order. Hell, he’d be AG material in a (horrors) second Trump administration.
However even Paxton, for all his wiles wasn’t able to prevent (finally) a criminal case that began back in 2015 from finally coming to trial. Worse (for him) the trial will be in Houston where an actual fair and impartial jury can be selected. For Paxton a fair fight is his worst nightmare. What’s probably really both pissing him off and freaking him out is he had a real shot a a deal. A sweetheart deal where he’d get probation and not have to admit any wrongdoing.
A couple of Special Prosecutors disagreed and one of them (Kent Schaffer) announced this morning he was withdrawing from the case. He’d reached out to Paxton’s lawyer with the offer and Paxton’s legal team and Dan Cogdell was all for it. (He’s now talking tough guy – bring it on and whatnot) I’m sure Paxton was thrilled too. However, another Special Prosecutor expressed a quite different view:
Brian Wice, one of the special prosecutors handling the case, said it was important that Paxton’s case go to trial because “no one is above the law. And that includes Ken Paxton. And that’s why this case matters.”
During Friday’s hearing, the other special prosecutor in the case, Kent Schaffer, announced he was withdrawing ahead of the trial.
After the hearing, Wice said the two prosecutors parted ways after disagreeing over Schaffer’s push to avoid a trial and instead settle the case through pre-trial intervention.
Wice said that Schaffer had reached out with a pre-trial intervention offer (similar to probation) which if Paxton kept out of trouble would have resulted in an eventual dismissal of the charges. Wice believed pre-trial intervention wasn’t appropriate because there would have been not only no jail time but no admission of guilt:
“And without an acknowledgment of guilt, to me, that was worse than a slap on the wrist. That was, gee, let’s get you a cocktail, a hot meal, and breath mint. And that wasn’t going to happen on my watch,” Wice said.
The judge agreed with Wice and today announced “Game on” so to speak. So Paxton’s butt will be sitting in criminal court in Houston come April 15th. That’s awesome news but there’s a cherry on top. Paxton tried to employ a variation of the old saw about a teen murdering his parents then begging the court for mercy because he was an orphan. Paxton spend almost ten freaking years fighting with every trick in the book including abuse of his position as AG to delay and of course kill this prosecution. And as it failed he/his lawyers are complaining he can’t get a fair trial because of all the delays! Yep. Paxton is both trying to avoid becoming a felon (he could face up to 99 years in fact) AND doing a Bill Barr type audition for Trump to be HIS AG.
Karma takes too long to come round too often. But it looks that it’s decided to step into the ring and start knocking some real asshats upside the head. One final note about Paxton. On top of this he’s also got DOJ after him on federal charges, and he’s also in trouble over two former staffers who became Whistleblowers he retaliated against. Okay, so he’s not got as much on his plate as Trump. For now at least. But unlike Trump he’s an actual lawyer who knows he’s committed actual crimes. And has prosecutors ready to prove them in court, a place where HE doesn’t get to make or enforce the rules.
I doubt he’ll sleep any better than Trump tonight. Maybe in the wee hours hours they can commiserate on the phone, with Paxton offering legal tips that are actually legally sound and in return Trump can give him tips on making freakish social media posts. The two deserve each others. In one of the darkest, hottest place in hell if hell actually exists. I’ll settle for hell on earth in the form of prison cells next to each other.
Hey ken doll…remember Spiro Agnew? He had a pretty sweet deal until cornered up a tree. You may want to do some reading up on him.
Trump may be corrupt and evil, but at least he’s stupid.
Paxton doesn’t have that excuse available to him.
Concinnity, In this world of consistent and constant evil, I gotta admit your sardonic humour actually made me chuckle. Thank you. It lessened the rage just a teensy bit.
Drip…drip…drip…
Cheers and applause, too! 🙂
According to Dante, the lowest place in hell is also the coldest place in hell.
“If when it comes to somehow escaping legal accountability Trump seems to have had “9 to the 9th power to the 9th power” lives, Paxton has had at least 9 to the 9th power (81).”
I see that “math” is not one of your skills, Denis. 9 to the 9th power is 387,420,489 not “81.” 81 is 9 to the 2nd power (or 9^2–aka “nine squared”). The use of “power” simply means the number of times a number is multiplied by itself. Usually, the “second” and “third” powers are termed, “squared” and “cubed” respectively, so 9 to the 2nd power is 9-squared (or 9 x 9); 9 to the 9th power would be 9 x 9 x 9 x 9 x 9 x 9 x 9 x 9 x 9.
Trump’s “9 to the 9th power to the 9th power” would essentially be 9 to the 387,420,489th power (and you probably need a super computer to provide the actual number).
Thanks for correcting me. I knew that but it being late and my being in a rush to get the article posted I had a brain fart and used multiplication talble memory instead of breaking out the calculator. Way back in eight grade we had our algebra teacher at one point ask what was the largest number that can be created using only three digits. He told us to write it on a piece of notebook paper and hold it up. Remember, this was an algebra class and most wrote 999. Only a few of us got it right which as you know is nine to the 9th power and then to the 9th power. One big ass number! This was what, over 55 years ago so there were no hand held calculators. However anticipating we’d all be curious he wrote out the nines in the power function manner, followed by an equal sign and what it worked out to. And with a wry smile said “quite a bit more than 999 wouldn’t you say.” Anyway that popped into my head for some reason but as you note it was because I had a brain fart. Or stupid attack or whatever you want to call it. Embarrassing to have to be corrected to be sure but I’m not to proud to accept constructive criticism/correction when warranted and appreciate your pointing out my mistake.