Ken Paxton impeachment trial | Whistleblower describes meeting where AG admitted to affair

AUSTIN, Texas - The historic impeachment trial of Ken Paxton continued Wednesday with aggressive questioning and testimony.

Paxton's defense lawyer Tony Buzbee suggested that Jeff Mateer and others in the Attorney General's Office staged a "coup" and that Mateer wanted to be AG himself.

More on Ken Paxton

Mateer pushed back on those allegations.

The Attorney General's former first assistant testified to why he went to the FBI in October 2022 after learning Houston attorney Brandon Cammack, who he had not recommended, had served subpoenas at financial institutions involving Nate Paul.

"I had concluded Mr. Paxton was engaged in conduct that was immoral, unethical and that I, in good faith, believed was illegal," said Mateer.

Ken Paxton contracted Cammack when Mateer and other Paxton deputies would not.

"We considered it sort of a crisis moment. I mean, everything regarding Mr. Paul was kind of coming to a head," Mateer said.

Nate Paul is the real estate developer and Paxton campaign donor alleged to have provided bribes and other favors to the Attorney General.

Mateer recalled in Sept. 2020, Paxton and wife Angela, a state senator, called a meeting with senior AG staff and campaign staff. The meeting was personal and emotional in nature.

"Mr. Paxton revealed that he had been engaged in an extramarital affair and asked for our forgiveness," recalled Mateer.

Mateer said he believed Paxton repented. But when he learned the affair resumed, Mateer said he felt it was relevant to actions Paxton was taking.

Mateer and others alleged that Nate Paul manipulated Paxton for favors in exchange for helping to cover up the affair.

"He was my boss. He'd become a friend. I cared for him. I cared for Senator Paxton and I wanted him, I think in one of the memos I said ‘come clean,’" Mateer testified.

Mateer said he felt he failed at protecting his friend.

"In order to protect your friend Ken Paxton what you did was call the FBI, right?" questioned defense lawyer Tony Buzbee.

Buzbee grilled Mateer on what he knew and when he knew it.

"I believed that he potentially could have been subject to blackmail and as a result he was taking illegal actions on behalf of what we then knew was a campaign donor, but he was taking actions on behalf of Mr. Paul," said Mateer.

[BUZBEE: "You believed he was being blackmailed?"]

"At one point, I believed he was being blackmailed sir," Mateer responded.

[BUZBEE: "So you didn't think he was committing a crime, you thought somebody was committing a crime against him?"]

"At one point in time, I believed that, yes sir," Mateer said again.

Mateer said he asked Paxton if he was being blackmailed, which the AG denied.

"But his actions didn't reveal that," Mateer testified.

Buzbee accused Mateer of jumping to conclusions before knowing what was truly going on.

"I don't believe so, sir," Mateer responded.

[BUZBEE: "You could've put all this to bed if you had just talked to your boss."]

"I attempted to talk to him starting probably in June, July, August, September," said Mateer.

There was no proof in the testimony from Mateer that Nate Paul, the involved real estate developer who donated $25,000 to Ken Paxton in 2018, actually paid for any of the renovations to the Paxton's Austin home.

When asked by Buzbee about that he only said that is what he had been told.

Ryan Bangert talked of donating to Paxton's campaign before joining the office and being a fan of Paxton's work.

"I believed in what he was doing," he said. "I believed his policies were the best for Texas. That's why I joined his office in 2019.

But Bangert says in 2020, Paxton began asking him to intervene in matters involving Paul.

At the heart of the prosecutors’ case are accusations that Paxton allowed Paul to use the AG’s office to his benefit.

Bangert says Paxton requested they intervene in an open records dispute, a dispute between Paul's businesses and a charity and more.

Bangert described unusual behavior when Paxton asked them to rewrite an opinion about foreclosure to do the opposite of the staff's suggestion.

"It was bizarre," he said. "He was acting like a man with a gun to his head. Anxious, desperate, urging me to get it out as quick as humanly possible."

Bangert described taking off one of his staffer’s signature and adding his own to the opinion for fear it would tarnish the young man's career.

"At the end of the process, I had become very alarmed by the attorney general's behavior," he said. "I had promoted Ryan Vassar into that position myself, and I felt a degree of responsibility to him."

You can watch complete coverage of the trial on FOX4News.com and FOX 4's YouTube channel.

Large portions of the trial will also be available on FOX LOCAL along with highlights and analysis.

Live Blog

6:25 p.m. | Trial wraps for the day. Bangert is expected to take the stand again on Thursday morning.

5:36 p.m. | Bangert says that Paxton asked him to look into Paul's legal issues 3 times in 6 months.

5:33 p.m. | Bangert testifies that Paxton came to him and asked him to review a lawsuit by a charity against Paul's company.

5:20 p.m. | Bangert is responding to questions about alleged efforts by the Attorney General to get documents on the involving the investigation into Nate Paul. Bangert testified that Paxton said he was very skeptical of law enforcement.

4:19 p.m. | Bangert laughs at the idea that he would be a RINO (Republican In Name Only). He said that media reports leading up the trial described him as working for a "far right" group.

4:16 p.m. | The second witness called by the prosecution is Ryan Bangert. Bangert served as the Deputy First Assistant Attorney General of Texas in 2020. He worked under first witness Jeff Mateer. He is another of the 8 whistleblowers against Ken Paxton.

3:54 p.m. | Mateer tells prosecutor Rusty Hardin that it appeared to him that Paxton was interfering in a federal case on behalf of Nate Paul.

3:41 p.m. | The defense passes the witness.

3:31 p.m. | Much of the afternoon testimony has been focused on the removal of Attorney General Ken Paxton's name from official OAG letterhead. Mateer has denied that he did anything of the sort.

3:28 p.m. | Buzbee accuses Mateer of 'staging a coup' in the Attorney General's Office. 

3:01 p.m. | Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick calls for a break as lawyers, yet again, argue over admissible evidence.

2:25 p.m. | Buzbee brings up that Ken Paxton had the legal authority to sign a contract to hire Brandon Cammack to investigate claims make by Nate Paul. Mateer said that the Attorney General himself signing the contract went against the usual nature of the office. He previously stated the contract raised his suspicions into Paxton's actions.

1:36 p.m. | The defense is continuing its questioning of Jeff Mateer. Watch highlights from Tony Buzbee's cross-examination here.

12:56 p.m. | The trial is now on break it is expected to come back at 1:30 p.m.

12:29 p.m. | Buzbee hints that Mateer wanted to be Attorney General. Mateer responds that he already had his dream job.

12:17 p.m. | Mateer said he believed that Paxton was being blackmailed when he went to the FBI when he looked at the AG's actions.

12:05 p.m. | Watch the exchange here:

11:59 a.m. | Tony Buzbee says that when Mateer went to the FBI he did not know the entirety of what was happening with the hiring of Brandon Cammack.

11:46 a.m. | The defense is now cross-examining Mateer.

11:28 a.m. | The trial is now in a break. Watch Mateer testifying about Paxton's meeting with staff about his affair.

11:17 a.m. | Mateer delves into accusations about Paxton's mistress. Mateer says the affair answered questions as to why he was helping a political donor.

10:58 a.m. | Mateer's testimony mostly focuses on the hiring of Brandon Cammack. Cammack was an outside lawyer hired by Paxton to investigate complaints made by Nate Paul. Mateer said Paxton signing the contract would go against the policy of the Office of the Attorney General, but the defense grabs onto the fact that Mateer said it was not illegal.

10:49 a.m. | Jeff Mateer on his concerns about Paxton's involvement with Nate Paul, "he was not a good guy."

10:29 a.m. | One of the allegations against Paxton claims that he enacted a COVID-based policy that stopped foreclosures on Nate Paul properties. Mateer says that at a time when Texas was strictly against COVID closures that the foreclosure policy "was as if Anthony Fauci wrote it."

10:06 a.m. | Ken Paxton's former top deputy, Jeff Mateer, is on the stand again. Mateer is one of the whistleblowers who reported Ken Paxton to the FBI for alleged bribery. 

9:57 a.m. | Ken Paxton is not in attendance at today's trial. He will likely not attend for the rest of the proceedings.

9:48 a.m. | After a lengthy delay things are finally getting underway.

8:58 a.m. | FOX 4's Steven Dial is in Austin giving updates from the state capitol.

8:25 p.m. | We are preparing for a second day of the impeachment trial of Ken Paxton. Paul Coggins, the former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, on Good Day. Watch his comments about Day One.

Day One Recap

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick ruled that Paxton had fulfilled his obligation and was not required to remain present for the trial, despite protests from prosecutors.

The trial is expected to pick up where it left off on Monday afternoon: with Paxton's former righthand man Jeff Mateer on the stand.

Mateer was one of the whistleblowers who reported Paxton to the FBI for alleged bribery.

On Tuesday, he talked about how he thought it was strange that Paxton himself was eager to appear in a Travis County Courtroom on behalf of Nate Paul, a onetime donor to Paxton's campaign.

Prosecutors are expected to call Mateer back to the stand along with additional witnesses on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, efforts to dismiss articles of impeachment against Paxton failed when the pre-trial motions were presented to the Senate.

Lt. Gov. Patrick did rule that 

Both the prosecution and defense gave their opening arguments.

The trial is expected to last for a couple weeks.

21 Texas Senators must vote to convict Paxton to remove him from office. If all 12 Democrat Senators vote to convict at least nine Republicans have to join them.

If Paxton is removed from office the Senate will then take another vote to potentially bar him from holding elected office in Texas again.

That would also require the vote of 21 state senators to pass.