Dick DeGuerin and Rusty Hardin, two Texas Lawbook “Lions of the Texas Bar,” will prosecute the impeachment case against Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The two Houston trial lawyers, nearly as famous in their own right as the many famous clients each has represented, were introduced at a brief news conference Thursday at the Texas Capitol. Combined, they have more than a century of courtroom experience.
They will present the case against Paxton when he faces trial before the Texas Senate no later than Aug. 28.
Paxton, a Collin County Republican who has served as attorney general since 2015, has denied any wrongdoing and called his impeachment a “politically motivated sham.”
He was suspended from his duties on May 27, when the GOP-controlled Texas House approved 20 articles of impeachment against him. A House investigative committee accused the attorney general of a “long-standing pattern of abuse of office and public trust, disregard and dereliction of duty, and obstruction of justice and abuse of judicial process.”
A two-thirds vote of the Senate, where Republicans hold a 19-to-12 advantage, is needed to convict him and remove him permanently from office.
DeGuerin and Hardin told reporters they were alarmed by the scope of the evidence against Paxton.
“The people of the state of Texas are entitled to know whether their top cop is a crook,” The Texas Tribune quoted DeGuerin as saying.
Hardin was quoted by The Tribune as saying, “This is not about a one-time misuse of office. … It’s about a pattern of misconduct.” “He added, “I promise you it is 10 times worse than what has been public.”
Hardin and DeGuerin were among 50 celebrated lawyers recognized by The Lawbook in 2017 as Lions of the Texas Bar.
DeGuerin, 82, is a protégé of the late Percy Foreman, whom he defended, as a young attorney, in a drunken-driving case. He represented U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Republican from Sugar Land, who was charged with campaign-donation violations; and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican from Dallas who was charged with official misconduct. DeLay was found guilty, but his conviction was overturned on appeal. Hutchison was quickly acquitted.
DeGuerin was also the lawyer for David Koresh, the central figure in the 1993 Branch Davidian standoff outside Waco.
Hardin, 81, spent 15 years as an assistant district attorney in Harris County before launching his career as a defense lawyer. He represented the accounting firm Arthur Andersen in the Enron scandal and the estate of Texas oil baron J. Howard Marshall in an inheritance dispute with Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith, Marshall’s wife in the final year of his life. Over the years, Hardin has developed a semi-specialty as the go-to lawyer for star Houston athletes in trouble with the law. Among others, he successfully defended Roger Clemens, accused of perjury; Calvin Murphy, accused of molestation; Rudy Tomjanovich, accused of drunken driving; and Warren Moon, accused of spousal abuse.
In the Marshall case, Hardin made a point to refer to Smith, who was 63 years younger than her late husband, as “Mrs. Marshall.”
When she was on the stand, Hardin asked her, “Mrs. Marshall, have you been taking new acting lessons?” to which the widow famously replied, “Screw you, Rusty.”
“People still yell that out to me,” Hardin told The Lawbook 16 years later. “Last year, I was getting on a plane and this little old gray-haired lady in the back yells out, ‘Screw you, Rusty.’ I love it.”