Ken Paxton impeachment trial: Paxton's legal team presents their case

HOUSTON - It was day 8 of the historic impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and his legal team was very busy attempting to justify their client's controversial actions.

On the witness stand for Team Paxton - their own deeply committed, rock-ribbed Republican Austin Kinghorn who serves as general counsel in the Attorney General's Office.

Under examination, Kinghorn contended many, if not all of Paxton's actions criticized as improper or illegal in the articles of impeachment - were within the legal authority of the State's Top Cop.

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"Well I guess there's kind of an old saying in the legal profession, his name is in on the wall, it's his agency and he is the duly elected Attorney General so it's his law firm," said Kinghorn.

Kinghorn's testimony was clearly meant to legitimize Paxton's controversial decisions to release confidential details of an ongoing FBI investigation and to clandestinely hire an outside special Prosecutor to investigate Businessman Nate Paul's adversaries - which included law enforcement agents, lending institutions, and even a federal Judge.

"The attorney General's authority and the first assistant's authority flow directly from the Texas Constitution and the statutes," Kinghorn says on the stand.

As for the rapid firings of multiple Whistleblowers, the AG's Human Resources Director claimed the terminations were justified and not retaliatory.

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Prosecutors quickly contended they amounted to hair-trigger retribution that's clearly banned by law.

"Have you heard the saying - there are no coincidences in Austin," Paxton's prosecutor Daniel Dutko.

The defense rested their case on Thursday evening and both sides agreed to present closing arguments Friday morning.

Each side now has one hour for rebuttals and one hour for closing arguments.