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AUSTIN — Ken Paxton’s former chief of staff on Monday testified that she warned the attorney general that his attempts to hide his alleged extramarital affair took a toll on his employees and could expose the agency to ethical, political and legal risks.

Katherine “Missy” Cary said she told Paxton on two separate occasions that having a secret affair could be problematic for him and the agency, including during his re-election campaign in 2018.

“These things can open one up to bribery, misuse of office, misuse of state time,” she said.

“I told General Paxton quite bluntly that it wasn’t my business who he was sleeping with,” added Cary, who worked under multiple attorneys general over two decades, “but that, when things boiled over into the office and into the state work, then it’d become my business.”

Paxton’s security detail and aides complained to her about being asked to work odd hours and staff events that weren’t state business: “They were concerned about the general’s behavior.”

The testimony marked the first time the alleged affair was discussed in detail during Paxton’s historic impeachment trial. Angela Paxton, who as a state senator is required to attend the trial, sat impassively at her desk. She paid close attention to the testimony, continuing her pattern of taking copious notes.

Paxton will be removed from office if at least two-thirds of senators, who are serving as the impeachment jury, vote to convict him. He is accused of abuse of office, bribery and obstruction of justice. Sen. Paxton is barred from voting in the trial.

Many of the articles of impeachment relate to Paxton’s dealings with friend and campaign donor Nate Paul, a federally indicted real estate investor. Paxton is accused of helping Paul thwart the FBI investigation into his businesses in exchange for paying for his home kitchen remodel and giving a job to the woman with whom Paxton had the alleged affair.

Several senior agency employees reported Paxton to the FBI for this alleged corruption in 2020. The defense team has sought to paint the group, which did not include Cary, as disloyal and lacking any evidence of actual wrongdoing. The witnesses have said they had to tell federal authorities in order to halt what they believe were Paxton’s criminal misdeeds.

On cross examination, Paxton’s defense attorney said it was unfair to imply an “indiscretion” makes someone a criminal.

“Imagine if we impeached everybody here in Austin that had had an affair. We’d be impeaching for the next 100 years, wouldn’t we?” Tony Buzbee asked.

Cary answered, “I don’t think I should answer that question in this chamber, particularly.”

Four witnesses testified Monday, kicking off the second and likely final week of the trial. As the proceedings got underway Monday, the trial’s presiding officer, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, indicated Paxton’s fate could be decided as early as this week.

Patrick said deliberations could begin as soon as Thursday and that senators would be kept in Austin until they reach a verdict on all the impeachment charges they are considering.

“From this moment forward, no off days until the trial and the deliberations and the decision is given,” he said.

Extramarital affair discussed

Cary, who resigned in October 2020 and now is a private lawyer, testified that Ken and Angela Paxton openly acknowledged the affair in a meeting with staff in September 2018.

“My heart broke for her,” she said, remembering the meeting. “I told her that I was sorry this had happened to her.”

By summer 2019, Cary testified that she became aware the affair was “ongoing.” When she approached Paxton about the relationship a second time that year, she testified he became angry with her for not being more accommodating.

“He was frustrated with me,” Cary said, recalling the discussion. She said Paxton told her “he still loved Mrs. Olson.”

Laura Olson was identified as the woman with whom Paxton had the alleged affair in court documents filed in August by the attorney general’s defense team.

Angela Paxton has remained defiantly cheerful throughout the proceedings. She embraced her husband on the first day of the trial, the only day he has been in attendance, and has regularly turned to the gallery to wave and blow kisses to supporters.

In the morning, she had a video chat with her grandchildren from her Senate chair.

“I just talked to my grandsons. Everything’s all right after that,” she said outside of the chamber, flashing a big smile.

‘Cook up’ complaints

The second week of Paxton’s trial began with Mark Penley, who testified that he and another whistleblower discussed an effort to “cook up” complaints to the State Bar of Texas against the attorney general.

His was the first testimony indicating employees considered making allegations against Paxton beyond their FBI complaint in 2020.

Penley, a former assistant attorney general for criminal justice, told the Senate that whistleblower David Maxwell said they could report Paxton to the state bar after they were placed on administrative leave following the FBI complaint.

In his handwritten notes from the time, Penley acknowledged that he called it a plan to “cook up” bar complaints against Paxton and two other attorneys, he testified.

“I have no independent recollection of these notes, so I wrote down the word ‘cook up,’” said Penley. “We never did anything with it.”

Paxton had tasked Penley with reviewing complaints from Paul that the FBI, state police, federal prosecutors and a federal magistrate had conspired to illegally alter a search warrant used to raid his home and business in 2019. Penley said he was immediately suspicious of Paul and called his accusations “crazy.”

Penley said he first learned about Paxton’s relationship with Paul during a phone call Paxton arranged with the real estate investor at a Starbucks in Highland Park. Paxton placed the call, and both he and Penley listened to Paul on speaker phone inside a car.

Penley testified he thought he might be fired as he continued to tell his boss to cut ties with Paul and to disregard Paul’s complaints. It was then that he said he had “circumstantial evidence” that Paxton was bribed.

Feds wave off local DA

After Penley, former Travis County prosecutor Gregg Cox testified that federal authorities waved off his office from looking into several potential crimes involving Paxton.

Cox, who is now the first assistant district attorney in Hays County, said he believed Paxton might have committed bribery, organized crime and perjury. Prosecutors in the district attorney’s office met with federal authorities but were told to stand down, he testified. Cox said the decision to drop the case frustrated him.

“I had seen this happen too often. The federal government would sit on it for a long time, and then we might not see anything happen,” Cox said.

A federal grand jury in San Antonio is reviewing Paxton’s ties to Paul, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Buzbee vociferously objected to Cox’s testimony.

“That’s pure speculation,” Buzbee said. Paxton “hasn’t been charged with anything. And even if he were charged, he’d still be innocent.”

Prosecutor: Paul complaints ‘baseless’

Testimony from former Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore wrapped up the day.

Moore said Paxton asked her in 2020 to listen to Paul’s complaints to determine whether her office could investigate. She acquiesced, Moore testified, because she considered Paxton a friend and respected his position as the state’s top lawyer.

But Moore, a Democrat who lost her re-election bid last year, said she quickly determined Paul’s allegations were “absolutely incredible and without basis.” Like many of the witnesses before her, she called Paul’s complaints “a conspiracy” that targeted multiple federal and state agencies.

Instead of investigating them, Moore’s office referred the matter to Paxton’s agency.

Buzbee criticized Moore for sending the complaint back to Maxwell, a Texas Ranger, and rattled off a list of ways the FBI and its agents have violated the rights of Americans in recent years. She said she trusted the FBI and agency staff also would find Paul’s allegations unbelievable.

“I expected David Maxwell and any of the criminal lawyers in the AG’s office would view this matter as absolutely baseless and not worthy of investigation. I expected it to be a dead issue on arrival,” Moore said.

Moore also testified that she never signed off on hiring Houston attorney Brandon Cammack to be a special prosecutor who served several grand jury subpoenas on Paul’s business adversaries.

“I couldn’t pick him out of a lineup today,” Moore said of Cammack.