Republican-led House impeaches Texas AG
WASHINGTON: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was impeached in an extraordinary vote by the state’s Republican-dominated House of Representatives, which charged him Saturday with bribery, obstruction of justice and 18 other offences.
Mr Paxton, a champion of far-right GOP legal fights over guns, abortion and immigration and a frequent foil of the Biden administration, will be immediately suspended following the historic vote. The Texas Senate, also dominated by Republicans, will conduct a trial to determine whether the three-term attorney general should be permanently removed as the state’s top law enforcement officer.
The vote marks the first time Texas Republicans have been forced to confront the allegations of criminal and ethical misconduct that have followed Mr Paxton throughout most of his tenure.
The vote was 121-23 in favor of impeachment, with House Speaker Dade Phelan voting in support.
“No one person should be above the law, least not the top law enforcement officer of the state of Texas,” said Representative David Spiller, a Republican member of the ethics committee that investigated Mr Paxton, during opening statements.
The vote could signal an abrupt end to Mr Paxton’s role as a leading conservative agitator. He is a close ally of former President Donald Trump and emerged as one of the prominent voices denying the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.
In a statement after the vote, Mr Paxton said the proceedings were “illegal, unfounded and unethical” and based on false claims circulated by House investigators.
“What we witnessed today is not just about me,” Mr Paxton said in a statement. “It is about the corrupt establishment’s eagerness to overpower the millions of Texas voters who already made their voices heard when they overwhelmingly re-elected me.”
Mr Paxton has served as the state’s top law enforcement officer since 2014. But just months after taking office, he was indicted on securities fraud. The charges are still pending. In 2020, a group of his high-ranking employees reported Mr Paxton to the FBI for allegedly using his office to aid a political donor. They later sued Mr Paxton, claiming they were fired in retaliation.
The impeachment vote came after a House ethics panel voted unanimously to recommend Mr Paxton’s removal after reviewing the findings of a secret, monthslong probe into his conduct. Investigators said they uncovered evidence suggesting Mr Paxton improperly used his office to aide a campaign donor who was being investigated by the FBI and directed his staff to withhold information from law enforcement.
News of the findings and subsequent impeachment proceedings roiled the Texas Capitol in the waning days of the legislative session, which lasts about five months every other year. For years, Republicans have been silent about the myriad allegations against Mr Paxton, deferring comment on his behaviour until the resolution of the criminal case against him and the ongoing law enforcement probes.
Opponents of impeachment argued Saturday that the process was rushed and lawmakers should have been allowed to hear direct testimony from witnesses before casting a vote — including Mr Paxton himself.
State Representative John Smithee, a Republican from Amarillo, described the effort as a “hang them now, judge them later policy.”
The ethics committee behind the probe initiated an investigation into Mr Paxton’s conduct in March, after the attorney general asked state budget writers to allocate US$3.3 million (115 million baht) to fund a tentative settlement in the whistleblower lawsuit against him. State leaders ultimately declined to allocate money.