Texas lawmakers recommend impeaching Attorney General Ken Paxton after Republican investigation

[brooklynite]

Source: Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton teetered on the brink of impeachment Thursday after years of scandal, criminal charges and corruption accusations that the state’s Republican majority had largely met with silence until now.

In an unanimous decision, a Republican-led House investigative committee that spent months quietly looking into Paxton recommended impeaching the state’s top lawyer. The state House of Representatives could vote on the recommendation as soon as Friday. If the House impeaches Paxton, he would be forced to leave office immediately.

The move sets set up a remarkably sudden downfall for one of the GOP’s most prominent legal combatants, who in 2020 asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory. Only two officials in Texas’ nearly 200-year history have been impeached.

Paxton has been under FBI investigation for years over accusations that he used his office to help a donor and was separately indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015, but has yet to stand trial.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/texas-attorney-general-paxton-impeachment-1eaccf00ce80d26c4fc94eab1672e1bd?taid=646fd8ed3e1a2f0001dd3a1d&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Texas House committee recommends impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton

This makes me smile

Link to tweet

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/25/ken-paxton-impeachment-investigation/

In an unprecedented move, a Texas House committee voted Thursday to recommend that Attorney General Ken Paxton be impeached and removed from office, citing a yearslong pattern of alleged misconduct and lawbreaking that investigators detailed one day earlier.

During a specially called meeting Thursday afternoon, the House General Investigating Committee voted unanimously to refer articles of impeachment to the full chamber. The House will next decide whether to approve the articles against Paxton, which could lead to the attorney general's removal from office pending the outcome of a trial to be conducted by the Senate.

If a majority of the 149-member House approves the articles before the regular legislative session ends Monday, senators would need to convene a special session to hear the case......

The committee investigators said Paxton may have committed at least three felonies in an effort to help Paul with various legal troubles. These included spending $72,000 in staff labor on tasks that benefited the developer, providing him with an internal FBI file related to an investigation into Paul, and hiring an outside lawyer for $25,000 to conduct work that primarily benefited Paul.

Committee investigators also discussed criminal charges that have been pending against Paxton since 2015, when a Collin County grand jury indicted him on two counts of felony securities fraud related to private business deals in 2011. According to those charges, Paxton solicited investors into Servergy Inc. without disclosing that the McKinney tech company was paying him to promote its stock.

[Gregory Peccary]

2. WTF, Republicans holding one of their own accountable for something?

That never happens. Paxson must have really pissed off the wrong dudes.

[Lonestarblue]

3. I'm shocked that Texas Republicans are willing to impeach one of their own.

Paxton is corrupt and has always been. I wonder whose toes he stepped on now to see this action. My guess is that some big donor is tired of Paxton and wants him gone. He has certainly wasted a lot of taxpayer money on frivolous lawsuits and voting fraud investigations that have shown there is almost no voting fraud in Texas. Paxton is no loss, but he will be replaced by someone without the corruption baggage but more right-wing evangelism.

[Deminpenn]

19. Paxton said the Speaker of the Texas House was drunk

on the House floor. There's video of the Speaker's stumbling speech although I don't know if he has any medical condition that could produce something similar to drunken speech.

[ananda]

4. I'm concerned about who they have in mind to replace him.

Corruption is NOT the issue here.

[brooklynite]

7. Attorney General is an elected office

Title 12-Sec. 202.002. VACANCY FILLED AT GENERAL ELECTION. (a) If a vacancy occurs on or before the 74th day before the general election for state and county officers held in the next-to-last even-numbered year of a term of office, the remainder of the unexpired term shall be filled at the next general election for state and county officers, as provided by this chapter.
(b) If a vacancy occurs after the 74th day before a general election day, an election for the unexpired term may not be held at that general election. The appointment to fill the vacancy continues until the next succeeding general election and until a successor has been elected and has qualified for the office.

[kimbutgar]

5. I won't believe it until he's removed

They knew he was a bad man and Texas still re elected him last time.

[onetexan]

6. THIS!!☝️

[Major Nikon]

9. The only real question is how corrupt does he have to get before he's removed?

Felony indictments and now influence peddling seems like it would do it, but you have to remember we're dealing with a political party with a no-shit traitor as their presidential front runner.

[Mersky]

10. But maybe if he hadn't abused his office to skirt the securities fraud indictment

Voters would have been better informed. Texas is a huge and misinformed, non-voting state. I guarantee fox “news” viewers have been fed an entirely alternate reality to prop up Paxton, etc. The pattern repeats over and over with local news stations even sounding like propaganda outlets for our fascist governor and the extremists in the lege. This move to impeach is harder to omit from coverage.

[Trenzalore]

11. Yep

There is little hope there. Cruz is one of the most unpopular figures in the country and gets re-elected every time.

[moonshinegnomie]

8. its about time.

besides being a republican thug hes a common criminal.
he should be in jail for securities fraud already

[brooklynite]

12. Video...

Link to tweet

[Martin68]

13. Schadenfreude X 1000. Texas is as fucked up and dangerous as Florida, so it's good to see them

desintegrating right before our eyes.

[LudwigPastorius]

14. Do you know just HOW corrupt you have to be to have a bunch of Texas Republicans want to...

remove you from office?

I mean, shit, it only took them a decade to want to send that Picasso-faced motherfucker packing, but still...

[summer_in_TX]

15. Couldn't happen to a more sleazy guy!

The full House will vote maybe as soon as Saturday on the articles of impeachment. It will take two-thirds of the Senate to remove him.

[mwb970]

17. This guy is too sleazy for even REPUBLICANS to tolerate?

They seem willing to put up with pretty much anything, as long as the slimy crook involved is a republican.

[joshdawg]

18. republicans are only one third of the way through

the slime of Texas politics. abbott and patrick should be shaking in their shoes because they should be next!
As far as paxton goes? It's about fucking time!

[Javaman]

20. the repukes have determined that paxton is now more a liability than benefit.

this has nothing to do with doing the right thing.

[machoneman]

21. Wow, gottta read Raw Story's list of all 20 articles of impeachment.

https://www.rawstory.com/here-are-the-20-articles-of-impeachment-filed-against-ken-paxton/

[Wonder Why]

22. Commit crimes? That's okay. Have the nere to "insult" the speaker? Those crimes not okay.