The Texas Senate acquitted Attorney General Paxton on bribery and abuse of power allegations sent over by the Texas House. The accusations center around an Austin real-estate developer, Nate Paul, who the House accused Paxton of accepting home renovations and a job for his former mistress in exchange for helping him get state and federal agents off his back.
Paul was indicted earlier this year on financial crimes by Federal authorities. He has plead not guilty.
Paxton has not been arrested in anything related to Paul or the accusations brought by the Texas House.
"The FBI and the US attorney would be derelict in their duty if they didn't pay attention to this," said former U.S. Attorney and current white-collar defense attorney Paul Coggins.
Get DFW local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC DFW newsletters.
Paxton's House prosecutors and his defense team publicly questioned the whistleblowers who contacted the FBI about Paxton in 2020 and members of Paxton's current staff throughout the 9-day trial.
"It's really free discovery for the Government. The government can sit back and watch who takes the stand, how they do on the stand, how they hold up to cross-examination. Wouldn't put it beyond the realm of possibility that the FBI has learned some things from this," said Coggins.
Paxton's team has denied he crossed any legal lines. Paxton himself didn't testify at trial per a ruling from presiding judge Lt. Governor Dan Patrick. Neither did Paxton's former mistress, who was expected to plead her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and eat up valuable time on the trial clock. A contractor who was central in the alleged plot did not respond to a subpoena for information and to testify.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
Coggins said the Feds have stronger tools including nationwide subpoena power and the ability to offer immunity to witnesses by compelling them to testify.
If the Department of Justice has the evidence against Paxton, Coggins tells NBC 5 they will bring the case whether he's a sitting attorney general or not.
"I think they're going to take a look and say, do we have the goods? Do we have the evidence and is a jury more likely or not to convict?" Coggins said, "Whether he's sitting attorney general or not I think that analysis will be run. There's been cases, as you know, brought against senators, against governors. Now we have the former President."
"There's a fair amount of case law built up," he added.
Legal experts told the Dallas Morning News the Feds will likely call the same people - including a special prosecutor Paxton hired, Brandon Cammack - to testify under oath.
“If I’m the prosecutor, I would be looking primarily to see if the testimony of the individuals that have already been interviewed by the FBI is consistent,” said Dan Guthrie, a white-collar defense attorney and former federal prosecutor who specializes in representing whistleblowers.
Dallas defense lawyer Russell Wilson, told the News, the impeachment trial could also be a test run for everyone who would be involved in a federal case - including Paxton.
“Paxton may be finding out more details, more specifics about a future case against him,” Wilson said.
Paxton also is facing several state felony securities fraud accusations stemming from a 2015 Collin County grand jury. He has plead not guilty. Before the trial, his defense attorney Dan Cogdell told the press he would think about settling with state special prosecutors if he was removed from office.
That did not happen. At a brief press conference after the impeachment trial, Cogdell told reporters they would be the state charges like they defeated the impeachment accusations. He expected the state charges to be dropped or would fight them in court. The next hearing on the state criminal charges is next month. A trial is expected early next year.
