DevilDog Diaries🇺🇲@cjdelgross
So what does a $3,000,000 payoff buy you?
Just weeks before the 2023 impeachment trial, a pro-Ken Paxton PAC handed Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick $3M in campaign cash and loans.
Coincidentally, Patrick and the Senate rewrote the rules to ensure Paxton walked free.
Here is how the trial was engineered from day one:
The "Wife Math" Trick
* Senator Angela Paxton (Ken’s wife) was banned from voting due to conflict of interest.
* Yet, Patrick's rules forced her to sit in the chamber during the vote anyway.
* By counting her as "present," the 2/3 conviction threshold stayed at 21 votes.
* Her silent seat mathematically functioned as an automatic "No" vote.
The 6-Month Jail Threat
* Patrick slapped an aggressive, unprecedented gag order on the entire Capitol.
* Any senator or witness who spoke out faced up to 6 months in a county jail.
* He even banned live floor debate—senators voted in total, mandated silence.
The Fifth Amendment Shield
* Impeachment is a political process, meaning defendants usually must take the stand.
* Patrick broke precedent and ruled that Paxton could skip testifying entirely.
* This completely shielded the Attorney General from hostile cross-examination.
The Hidden Charges
* The Texas House sent over 20 serious articles of impeachment.
* Senate rules immediately sliced off 4 of the most damaging felony securities fraud charges.
* The moment the rigged trial ended, those 4 remaining charges were quietly erased.
The Bottom Line
When the umpire rewrites the rulebook and banks a multimillion-dollar check from your biggest fans, the game is over before it even starts. The 2023 trial wasn't an execution of justice—it was a masterclass in institutional corruption that paved the exact runway Paxton is using to run for the U.S. Senate today.
