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AUSTIN — A retired jurist, picked by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to advise him as he runs Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial, has bowed out after news outlets examined political contributions he made and received.
Former state appeals court judge Marc W. Brown of Houston said that during recent meetings with Patrick’s staff, he’d forgotten about a $250 contribution he and his wife Susan Baetz Brown made to a Paxton foe in last year’s GOP primary for attorney general.
Though Brown said he believed he could have been impartial and fair as Patrick’s legal counsel, Paxton’s upcoming trial in the Senate is “far too important to the State of Texas for there to be any distractions involving allegations of favoritism or personal bias on my part.”
Brown wrote to Patrick to decline the appointment on Saturday, a day after the Republican lieutenant governor announced it.
Brown, 59, a Republican, is a former trial and appeals court judge in Harris County. In 2018, he lost his seat as Democrat Beto O’Rourke came close to unseating U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. O’Rourke’s strong performance helped flip the 14th Court of Appeals from GOP control to a Democratic majority.
Brown said he’d discussed “my political activities and relationships to the participants” in the Paxton impeachment trial with aides to Patrick.
“Until today I had no recollection of any relevant matters,” he said.
Brown withdrew after the Texas Tribune inquired about the November 2021 contribution he and his wife made to former state Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, who came in third behind Paxton and George P. Bush in last year’s GOP attorney general primary.
Also on Saturday, the conservative website Texas Scorecard reported that Rep. Ann Johnson, a Houston Democrat and lawyer who is one of the House’s impeachment managers, contributed $50 to Brown’s last judicial campaign in late 2017.
Though Scorecard said Brown also received $3,000 from Houston criminal defense lawyer Rusty Hardin, one of the lawyers the House has hired to help prosecute Paxton, Hardin actually gave Brown $4,000, according to a review of campaign reports by The Dallas Morning News.
Houston lawyer Kent A. Shaffer, one of the special prosecutors in Paxton’s eight-year-old securities fraud case, also donated $500 to Brown in July 2017, The News found.
Patrick, who accepted Brown’s offer to step aside, had not made another appointment as of Monday afternoon.
Under rules for Paxton’s trial that the Senate adopted in June, Patrick is the presiding officer and he “may select legal counsel licensed in the State of Texas who is not a registered lobbyist in this State” and “must be knowledgeable about the Texas Rules of Evidence.”
Paxton, a three-term GOP attorney general, is accused of sweeping abuses, including bribery and abuse of power, across 20 articles of impeachment. Paxton denies all wrongdoing.
The Senate trial begins Sept. 5.