The Texas House of Representatives voted to impeach the state’s embattled attorney general, Ken Paxton, on Saturday—just days after investigators levied wide-ranging corruption allegations against the state’s top lawyer.
Paxton is accused of breaking a litany of laws in office, including an egregious allegation that he requested $3.3 million in state funds to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed by former employees he tried to silence.
The 60-year-old is also accused of covering up a potential sex scandal and retaliating against aides who reported his misconduct. Investigators say he even used his office to leak confidential FBI documents to a donor.
Lawmakers voted to oust Paxton on 20 articles of impeachment, which included bribery, unfitness for office, and abuse of public trust.
Paxton is now the first attorney general in U.S. history to be impeached by their state House, but he’s not officially out of office yet. He now faces a trial in the state Senate to determine his fate, but he’ll be barred from performing his official duties in the meantime.
Before the vote, former president Donald Trump took to Truth Social vowing to fight anyone who voted for Paxton’s impeachment.
“Hopefully Republicans in the Texas House will agree that this is a very unfair process that should not be allowed to happen or proceed,” Trump wrote. “I will fight you if it does.”
Paxton, a staunch conservative who was elected to be Texas’ top prosecutor three times, has been combative in his response to the litany of allegations he faces—characterizing Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan as a “liberal” who wants to “sabotage” his work.
He also accused Phelan—who sits on a House committee that probed Paxton for months and ultimately recommended his impeachment—of being drunk on the job and called for the speaker’s resignation on Tuesday.
Paxton’s legal troubles go back to 2015, just months after he took office for the first time. He was indicted then on securities fraud charges in a case that’s stalled in appeals ever since, allowing Paxton to win two more elections while vehemently denying the allegations.
While that indictment wasn’t enough for the GOP-led Texas state legislature to oust Paxton, the sheer number of scandals—and the details surrounding them—eventually caught up with him.
One allegation is that Paxton used his office to assist real-estate developer Nate Paul, a donor, who supposedly turned around and remodeled Paxton’s home and hired his mistress in return.
That alleged corruption didn’t go unnoticed in Paxton’s office. Four aides flagged the stunt but were promptly fired by Paxton, which was what led to the AG’s pricey $3.3 million request in state funds to settle a lawsuit filed by the ousted aides.
Erin Epley, one of the investigators who probed Paxton, said the fired aides were Republican civil servants who “wanted to be loyal” to their boss. Epley said the aides advised against the alleged quid pro quo with Paul, but Paxton ignored their pleas.
It all appears to be crashing down at once for Paxton, who isn’t just on the brink of losing his place as Texas’ top lawyer but his distinction as a Texas lawyer altogether. Paxton has been named in a lawsuit by the state’s bar, which accused him of misconduct for asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the 2020 election despite having no proof of widespread voter fraud—an offense that could see him disbarred.
The Texas legislature’s decision to impeach came just in time, as its session wraps up Monday. Paxton is only the third Texas official to be impeached in the state’s history—and the first since 1975.
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