Texas impeaches its Trump-allied attorney general
What happened
After voting overwhelmingly to impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a key Donald Trump ally, Texas lawmakers set a trial date this week for no later than August. The Texas House of Representatives brought 20 counts of impeachment, including multiple charges of bribery, obstruction of justice, and disregard of official duty. The charges stemmed from an investigation a Republicancontrolled committee had been conducting in secret since March. Paxton was already facing securities fraud charges dating to 2015, when he first became AG, but most of the impeachment counts involve his dealings with Nate Paul, an Austin real estate developer and political donor. The allegations include that the attorney general intervened in legal cases to benefit Paul and that in exchange, Paul gave a job to the woman Paxton was having an affair with and paid for renovations to Paxton’s home. Other charges stem from Paxton’s alleged retaliation against four top staffers who reported his dealings with Paul to the FBI in 2020. He fired them, and they sued for wrongful dismissal, settling for $3.3 million. The House investigation began shortly after Paxton requested that the state pay the full amount.
In his three terms as attorney general, Paxton has been assertive in furthering right-wing causes, suing the Obama and Biden administrations dozens of times over issues such as immigration and LGBTQ civil liberties. After the 2020 election, Paxton asked the Supreme Court to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, and he spoke at Trump’s Jan. 6 rally. Trump is standing by him now, calling Paxton’s impeachment “election interference” by “the Radical Left Democrats, RINOS, and Criminals.” Paxton can be removed by a vote of two-thirds of the 31 state senators. One of those senators is his wife, Angela Paxton, and she has not recused herself.
What the editorials said
The “most corrupt AG in Texas history” finally faces a reckoning, said the Houston Chronicle. This newspaper and others warned voters when Paxton first ran for the office that investigators suspected he had committed securities fraud, and he was indicted in 2015. But he managed to delay his day in court, and even with that cloud over his head he easily won re-election last November. Naturally, he’s “fighting impeachment Trump-style,” framing himself as the victim of a liberal plot and even “calling on his supporters to descend on the Texas Capitol” to protest.
Paxton should be given “a robust opportunity to defend himself” this summer, said the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. But it’s telling that even his defenders objected to his impeachment only on procedural grounds. He has few friends here: His official misconduct drove competent state attorneys to quit, forcing Texas to rely on outside lawyers at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $40 million. “A poor reflection of conservative ideas and character,” Paxton simply “must go.”
What the columnists said
Only fellow Texas Republicans had “the clout to rein Paxton in,” said Tim Murphy in Mother Jones. Of course, these lawmakers mostly supported his “breathtakingly cruel anti-trans policies,” such as encouraging child-abuse investigations against parents who allowed transgender children to get hormone treatments. And they shrugged when former staffers alerted the feds to his inappropriate interference on behalf of Paul. They found their red line only when Paxton tried to put the state on the hook for $3.3 million.
“Everything about this from start to finish just stinks,” said Nicole Russell in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Paxton allegedly used the state’s top prosecutorial office as personal legal services for his friend, protecting Paul against a lawsuit from a charity and intervening so his properties wouldn’t go into foreclosure. And in exchange for home renovations! This kind of self-interest and greed is “why many Americans just loathe politicians.”
So why is Trump still “spending political capital” on this guy? asked Philip Bump in The Washington Post. It’s partly that “Paxton’s situation looks a bit like his own,” and he needs to paint any legal investigation against a MAGA Republican as a witch hunt.
But more importantly, Paxton has already proved willing to use his office to help Trump win—he all but admitted that his halting of the distribution of mail-in ballots helped Trump take Texas in 2020. A Trump campaign to pressure Texas lawmakers to keep one of his most loyal and powerful allies in position might not work. “But for Trump, what’s the harm in trying?”