AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Whistleblower Ryan Vassar resumed testimony in Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial Friday morning, recounting the events surrounding his decision to report Paxton to the FBI for alleged ethical and legal violations.
Friday morning began with tense cross-examination from Paxton’s defense team.
Thursday afternoon, Vassar teared up at Paxton’s suggestion that he and the whistleblowers were “rogue employees.” That assertion was “contrary to the years that I dedicated my life to the state,” he said. Defense attorneys on Friday appeared to attempt to discredit those solemn emotions, referencing text messages Vassar sent in a private group chat of whistleblowers.
Paxton defense attorney J. Mitchell Little displayed numerous text messages showing Vassar and other former employees demeaning other colleagues, insulting their intelligence and making light of their difficult experience following the FBI complaint.
One text from Vassar included an image of “Going Rouge: The Sarah Palin Rogue Coloring and Activity Book” — a satirical 2009 book that Vassar used as an “oblique reference” to Paxton’s criticism of the whistleblowers. The lighthearted texts from 2020 contrasted with Vassar’s tears at the term “rogue” — “gallows humor,” Little described it.
“It was a joke. I believe earlier your testimony was that being called a ‘rogue employee’ was very upsetting to you. Right?,”...
WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s years-long campaign to undermine faith in U.S. elections has gained broad traction with the American public, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows, p...