The Impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
The Texas House of Representatives decided on a 121-23 vote to impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton; 60 Republicans were in favor and 23 were opposed. The trial is now in process before the Texas Senate; a 2/3rds vote is necessary to remove him from office. His wife is a sitting but non-voting state Senator.
The charges arise out of bribery and corruption allegations related to Paxton’s friend and campaign contributor Nate Paul. https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/html/HR02377I.htm Basically, Paxton was using the lawyers and powers of the Attorney General’s office to do legal favors for his friend, and Paul was paying for the costs of renovating Paxton’s home. Paul also gave a job to the woman with whom Paxton was having an affair. His closest and most trusted colleagues in the Texas Attorney General’s office held an intervention with Paxton to persuade him to stop his misconduct in office. After he had agreed to do so, he resumed his favors for Nate Paul. His colleagues then turned him into the FBI. Paxton then fired them all; they successfully sued him for wrongful termination. Paxton then asked Texas legislators to pay for the $3 million in assessed damages.
The chief witnesses against him are his inner circle of top officials of the Texas Attorney General’s Office – all of whom are very conservative Republican lawyers, dedicated to the same issues as Paxton. https://www.kcra.com/article/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-impeachment-trial-fbi-witness/45024968 Paxton’s defenders are trying to make his impeachment trial into a defense of Donald Trump and the policies of the extreme right. https://apnews.com/article/paxton-impeachment-trial-texas-bf9b99ae0135d6759e87d5ff4238a7a4 That’s not such an easy sell to Texas’ conservative politicians who know Paxton and his corruption firsthand. Here’s the who’s who in the trial proceedings. https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/01/ken-paxton-impeachment-witnesses-parties/