The majority-Republican Texas House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly yesterday to impeach hard-right Attorney General Ken Paxton on a slew of criminal acts, including allegations of corruption, bribery, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and abuse of public office. – to name a few. The hearing was the first of its kind in the state since 1975, and the first time one ended with a “yes” vote in over a century.
Paxton has been a key ally of former President Donald Trump and spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C. on the morning of January 6. Trump gave his full support to Paxton just before the hearing kicked off. “The RINO Speaker of the House of Texas, Dade Phelan, who is barely a Republican at all and failed the test on voter integrity, wants to impeach one of the most hard-working and effective Attorney Generals in the United States, Ken Paxton, who just won re-election with a large number of American Patriots strongly voting for him,” Trump wrote on Truth Social less than an hour before the House began impeachment proceedings. After the floor session ended, Trump laid into Phelan, who presided over the hearing. “What is our Country coming to?”
For four hours and in front of a packed gallery on Saturday afternoon, House members debated the case against Paxton. “We will not tolerate corruption, bribery, abuse of office, retaliation, and all the related charges that have been presented to you,” Representative Andrew Murr, a Republican who led the investigation into Paxton, said as the hearing came to a close. “I’m confident that you cannot tolerate, let alone defend, these most serious and grave official wrongs.” Murr’s colleagues agreed, returning a vote 121-23 in favor, with two abstentions. The result was a historic rebuke from Paxton’s own party: nearly three-quarters of the House GOP caucus voted for impeachment.
For nearly a decade, Paxton has been able to avoid facing consequences for a number of scandals. He was indicted for securities fraud in 2015, shortly after he won his first attorney general election, and has managed to keep the case from going to trial for nearly eight years. In 2019, Paxton allegedly intervened on behalf of a campaign donor who was facing an FBI investigation, and after members of Paxton’s staff blew the whistle in 2020, he fired them. But what ultimately triggered the impeachment investigation was Paxton’s request in February for $3.3 million in taxpayer money to settle a lawsuit filed by four of the whistleblowers.
“Every allegation is easily disproved, and I look forward to continuing my fight for conservative Texas values,” Paxton had tweeted on Wednesday. After the House voted against him yesterday, Paxton released a statement responding to what he called his “illegal, unfounded, and unethical impeachment.” “I look forward to a quick resolution in the Texas Senate, where I have full confidence the process will be fair and just,” Paxton wrote.
No date has been set yet for Paxton’s Senate trial, which will be presided over by Dan Patrick, Texas’s hard-right lieutenant governor. When Paxton does face the Senate, which is currently composed of 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats, one of his 31 jurors will be his wife, Republican State Senator Angela Paxton, who is implicated in one of her husband’s more lurid impeachment charges. Of the 20 impeachment articles Paxton faced this weekend, one charges him with constitutional bribery for having the same campaign donor provide renovations to his home—allegedly at the behest of Paxton’s wife, who wanted an expensive granite kitchen countertop—in exchange for support from the Attorney General’s office.
A two-thirds majority in the Senate will be necessary to remove Paxton permanently from office. This means that if Paxton’s wife declines to recuse herself, just under half of the Senate’s Republicans will have to vote alongside every Democrat to render a “yes” vote.
Jack McCordick
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