US: Texas House votes to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton amid fraud, bribery allegations

The Texas House moved to impeach the state’s Attorney General Ken Paxton, on Saturday (May 27), in a historic vote, alleging that his conduct included a slew of abuses of his office. The impeachment, which was the first time in decades, followed a vote from the 149-member Republican-led Texas House where Paxton had been accused of abuse of office by his fellow GOP members.

Proceedings and the vote

The three-term attorney general and former United States President Donald Trump ally,Paxton, was immediately suspended after the House of Representatives in Texas voted 121-23 to impeach himafter hours of debate on the 20 articles, which included allegations of bribery and abuse of public trust filed against him.

During the debate, the House chamber heard speeches from both supporters and opponents of the impeachment. The decision followed a majority vote against Paxton, with two members present but not voting, while three were absent. After the vote, the now-suspended attorney general took to Twitter and denied the accusations and denounced the proceedings as “illegal, unethical, and profoundly unjust.”

He added, “I look forward to a quick resolution in the Texas Senate, where I have full confidence the process will be fair and just.” However, Paxton’s permanent ouster is still pending trial from the US Senate where his wife Angela Paxton is a senator. As per the Texas Senate website, they are in recess until 1:00 pm (local time), on Sunday.

The debate also comes after the five-member Texas House General Investigating Committee voted unanimously, on Thursday, and recommended that Paxton be impeached and removed from office.

The development also comes at a time when divides inside the Republican Party are becoming more apparent in Texas. “Attorney General Paxton continuously and blatantly violated laws, rules, policies and procedures,” said Representative David Spiller.

Spiller, who was also a part of the House investigative committee,also revealed that the investigation against Paxton has been going on for months. On the other hand, John Smithee, a long-time conservative member of the chamber, said while he is not defending Paxton’s actions, he criticised the process and said there was not sufficient evidence for the proceedings.

“There is not one word, not one sentence in the testimony before you that would be admissible in any Texas court of law,” said Smithee, adding that “It is hearsay within hearsay within hearsay.” Ahead of the vote, on Saturday, Trump had also taken to his social media platform Truth Social and vowed to “fight” if the Republican-led Texas House were to impeach Paxton.

Why is Paxton being impeached?

The Republican-led committee had 20 articles of impeachment against Paxton following the vote, accusing him of a long list of abuses, including accepting bribes, failing to perform his official duties, obstructing justice in a separate securities fraud case that is pending against him, lying on official documents and reports, and abusing the public trust.

This includesconducting an alleged sham investigation against whistleblowers in his office whom he fired, felony securities fraud charges from 2015, and an ongoing FBI investigation into corruption accusations, among other offences.

(With inputs from agencies)

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