The historic impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Sunday plunged Republicans into a debate centering on the , whether to deport one of their own in America’s largest red state, and those scandals and criminal charges will now be at the center of a state Senate trial.
Paxton said he was “full of confidence” as he awaited the Senate’s decision, and his conservative allies included his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, who did not say whether she would recuse herself from deciding whether her husband would be permanently jailed Procedures for disenfranchisement. dismissed.
Currently, three Texas attorneys general have been suspended immediately after the state House of Representatives impeached Paxton on 20 articles Saturday, including bribery and abuse of public trust.
The decisive 121-23 vote came after Republican lawmakers took a near-silent stance on Paxton’s alleged misconduct for nearly a decade, including felony securities fraud charges in 2015 and the FBI’s ongoing investigation into corruption allegations. The equivalent of a unequivocal condemnation from the Republican-controlled chamber.
He is the third serving official to be impeached in the nearly 200-year history of the state of Texas.
“No one should be above the law, at least not the highest legal officer in Texas,” said Rep. David Spiller, a Republican on the House investigative committee. It was revealed this week that the committee had been quietly investigating Paxton for months.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has been silent on Paxton all week, including after Saturday’s impeachment. Abbott, who served as the state’s attorney general until Paxton took office in 2015, has the authority to name an interim replacement pending the outcome of the Senate trial.
It is unclear when the Senate trial will take place. Paxton’s eventual ouster would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, where Republican members typically align with the party’s hard right. The Senate is led by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who served as state chairman for former President Donald Trump’s Texas campaign.
Trump and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz defended Paxton ahead of Saturday’s vote, with the senator calling the impeachment proceedings “a caricature” and saying the attorney general’s legal issues should be left to the courts.
“Release Ken Paxton,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, warning that if House Republicans proceed with impeachment, “I will fight you.”
Paxton, 60, condemned the House result immediately after dozens of his fellow citizens voted for impeachment. His office noted that the internal report found no wrongdoing.
“The ugly spectacle in the Texas House of Representatives today confirms that the brazen impeachment plot against me was never fair or just,” Paxton said. “This has been a politically motivated hoax from the start.”
Lawmakers allied with Paxton sought to discredit the investigation by pointing out that hired investigators, not panelists, interviewed witnesses. They also said some investigators voted in the Democratic primary, staining the impeachment case, and that Republican lawmakers did not have enough time to review the evidence.
“I think it could be the weaponization of politics,” Rep. Tony Tinderholt, one of the most conservative members of the House, said before the vote. Republican Rep. John Smithee likened the process to “a mob going out on a Saturday for an afternoon lynching.”
Mark P. Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University, said the swift move to impeachment deprived Paxton of critical support and allowed frustrated Republicans to creep together.
“If you ask most Republicans privately, they’ll find Paxton awkward. But most are too afraid of the base to oppose him,” Jones said. By voting as a large bloc, lawmakers gain political cover, he added.
For Paxton’s longtime critics, however, such accusations are years overdue.
In 2014, he pleaded guilty to violating Texas securities laws and was charged a year later in his hometown near Dallas with securities fraud against investors in a tech startup. He has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts, which carry a potential sentence of 5 to 99 years in prison.
He opened a legal defense fund and accepted $100,000 from an executive whose company was being investigated by Paxton’s office for Medicaid fraud. An Arizona retiree donated another $50,000, and his son Paxton was later hired for a senior position, only to be quickly fired after displaying child pornography at a meeting. In 2020, Paxton intervened in a mountain community in Colorado whose Texas donor and college classmate faced eviction from his lakeside home under coronavirus orders.
But it was Paxton’s relationship with Austin real estate developer Nate Paul that ultimately sparked the impeachment.
In 2020, eight top aides told the FBI they were concerned that Paxton had misused his office to help Paul address unsubstantiated claims from developers about an elaborate conspiracy to steal $200 million from him. The FBI raided Paul’s home in 2019, but he was not charged and has denied wrongdoing. Paxton also told staff he had an affair with a woman who worked for Paul.
The impeachment accuses Paxton of trying to intervene in the foreclosure lawsuit and give legal opinions to benefit Paul. Bribery charges included in the impeachment allege Paul hired a woman who had an affair with Paxton in exchange for legal help and paid for expensive renovations to the attorney general’s residence. Chris Hilton, a senior attorney in Paxton’s office, said Friday that the attorney general paid for all repairs and renovations.
Other charges, including lying to investigators, trace back to Paxton’s still pending securities fraud indictment.
Four of Paxton’s aides who reported to the FBI later filed a lawsuit under Texas whistleblower law, and he agreed in February to settle the case for $3.3 million. The House committee said Paxton sought legislative approval for the payments, sparking the investigation.
“Paxton would not have faced impeachment had it not been for Paxton himself to demand taxpayer funding to address his misconduct,” the panel said.