The Texas Observer is a feisty journal that specializes in investigative journalism. Like all such media that live to fight the powerful and the corrupt, it survives by a shoestring. I have a special fondness for the Ibserver because that was where I published my first article after finishing college.

What can one say about disgraced Attorney General Ken Paxton’s acquittal in his impeachment trial other than there seems to be no justice or accountability for flagrant public corruption in Texas. “While Paxton is back in power, his troubles aren’t over,” writes Senior Staff Writer Justin Miller. “Next month, he’ll finally go to trial on the state securities fraud charges for which he was indicted nearly a decade ago. Then, there’s the federal investigation into him for the very same allegations that brought his impeachment.”

Justin Miller wrote:

Impeached but not convicted, Ken Paxton is returning to helm the Texas Attorney General’s office.

After a nearly-two week trial and hours of private deliberation, the Texas Senate voted to acquit Paxton on all 16 of the articles of impeachment that were brought to trial by the House. No single vote came close to reaching the two-thirds majority required to convict, and only two Republicans—Senators Kelly Hancock and Robert Nichols—joining Democrats on most articles.

Having spent his political career dodging legal and ethical challenges, Paxton’s acquittal of impeachment charges involving serious and sweeping corruption allegations marks a whole new level of victory for the attorney general.

His impeachment stemmed from several of his top deputies reporting him to the FBI after coming to believe that Paxton may have committed crimes and abused his office by providing extraordinary access and favors to his friend and campaign donor Nate Paul, a real estate investor in Austin. All of those deputies then either resigned or were fired.

Some of those deputies filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the AG’s office, which was fought for over two years, and finally reached a settlement in the beginning of this year. Then, a Texas House committee began secretly investigating the nature of that settlement and the whistleblowers’ complaint, culminating in a sudden-onset impeachment vote against Paxton at the every end of the 2023 legislative session.

Paxton’s impeachment trial in the Senate was full of drama and tension, with the public hearing directly from many of the people—including the whistleblowers—involved in these allegations for the first time. One of the strangest moments came on Thursday, when Paxton’s adulterous girlfriend Laura Olson showed up at the capitol to testify, only to leave before taking the stand—explained only in an announcement by Lieutenant Governor that she was deemed “unavailable” to testify.

In the defense’s closing arguments, Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee condemned, vilified, mocked and threatened the House, the prosecution team, the “so-called whistleblowers,” the media, and the political establishment for trying to take down Paxton on a bunch of unverified “maybes” and “could-be’s.” This echoed the defense’s consistent theme throughout the trial that this was all part of a dark conspiracy by establishment Republicans to take down Paxton after failing to defeat him at the ballot box….

After the final votes were taken, Dan Patrick–who presided over the trial as judge—didn’t waste a second letting his true feelings be known after being largely silent over the preceding three months.

He unleashed a tirade against the House and its Speaker Dade Phelan for the rushed and half-cocked process for impeaching Paxton in the first place. Patrick promised that he would push to pass constitutional amendments in the next session that would reform the state’s impeachment laws. Prior to the trial, Patrick’s campaign received $3 millionfrom the pro-Paxton PAC Defend Texas Liberty…

While Paxton is back in power, his troubles aren’t over. Next month, he’ll finally go to trial on the state securities fraud charges for which he was indicted nearly a decade ago. Then, there’s the federal investigation into him for the very same allegations that brought his impeachment.

With the help of an outside pressure campaign led by billionaire allies, Paxton survived this political trial. Can he do the same in an actual court?

Who were his billionaire allies? The Texas Monthly says that Paxton’s bills were paid by the same evangelical Texas billionaires who are funding the voucher campaign.

Much of that money [for Paxton’s defense] came from a Midland oilman named Tim Dunn. Dunn was a strong, ideological right-winger and an evangelical Christian who had helped Republicans beat back the Democratic wave and shore up control of the House in 2010. (Dunn was joined by other donors, and later his money was greatly supplemented by oilmen Dan and Farris Wilks, but he was, and is, the whale.) After the election, Straus invited Dunn to breakfast at the Capitol, hoping to establish some rapport and lines of communication. Dunn seemed uninterested for many reasons, but one in particular: Straus was the state’s first Jewish Speaker. Only Christians should be in leadership positions, Dunn told the Speaker. Straus settled in for a long siege.

Funny how issues like vouchers, vote suppression, abortion, attacks on gay rights, and disrespect for Black history get intertwined.