Despite Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s promise of transparency, the rules for suspended Attorney General Paxton’s trial provide for plenty of secrecy. Pretrial motions, witness lists, and final deliberations will be kept from the public.
, but trial rules recently adopted by the Texas Senate came after an opaque process — and provide for plenty of secrecy going forward.
When senators vote on pretrial matters — or cast the deciding votes on whether to convict or acquit on each article of impeachment — there can be no debate or comments beyond “yea” or “nay.”After all the evidence is presented and closing arguments are made, senators will meet in private to deliberate like any jury in a civil or criminal trial.
“Just comparing this process to other processes [in state government], it hasn’t been transparent,” said Adrian Shelley, executive director of Public Citizen Texas, an Austin-based government watchdog group. “Not even knowing when the committee is meeting is pretty disappointing.” Patrick said from the Senate dais Wednesday night that he was proud senators could come together to craft the rules, and he reminded them of the rules against discussing the case. He later issued a written statement acknowledging their adoption after “2 days of thoughtful deliberation” but otherwise has not commented on the rules or the issues of transparency.
“The Rules are unprecedented in their presumption for opacity and closed deliberation,” Eckhardt wrote in the Senate Journal afterward.An opaque rule-making processOn the last day of the regular legislative session, May 29, the Senate passed a resolution creating a seven-member committee to draft rules and present them to the full Senate on June 20. Patrick named five Republicans and two Democrats to the panel and made GOP Sen.
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