The impeachment of Ken Paxton, explained

Republican on Republican political action!

(Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton)

Over the weekend in Texas, something strange happened: The Republican-led state House overwhelmingly voted to impeach Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

It was the first time in more than four decades that a Texas political figure had been impeached. Paxton, for his part, called the vote “a politically motivated sham.”

Regardless, Paxton is immediately suspended as the state’s top cop and faces a trial in the state Senate. If two thirds vote to convict him, he will be removed from office.

So, how did we get here? Let’s start from the beginning.

Paxton spent a decade in the Texas state House — yes, the same one that just impeached him — during the early 2000s. After a single term in the state Senate, he ran and won the race for Attorney General in 2014. (He beat a Democrat named Sam Houston!) In 2022, he was easily re-elected to a third term in office.

Ethical questions have swirled around Paxton for years.

In July 2015, less than a year after he took over as AG, Paxton was indicted on felony securities fraud charges. As the Texas Tribune described the charges:

Paxton is accused of persuading investors to buy stock in a technology firm without disclosing that he would be compensated for it. He has maintained his innocence and criticized the prosecution as politically motivated.

That case has never come to trial — delayed by a series of appeals and attempts to get the trial moved to different counties.

In 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against Paxton for the same violation for which he had been charged in the state. In October of that year, a federal judge threw out those charges.

Then, in 2020, five(!) senior staffers in Paxton’s AG office accused him of wrongly using the power of his office to benefit a donor.

The allegation at the heart of the complaint — which detailed alleged bribery among other charges — revolved around a donor named Nate Paul and the accusation that Paxton had used the AG’s office to investigate rivals to Paul.

In return, according to the Texas Tribune, “Paul helped Paxton extensively remodel his Austin house and gave a job to a woman with whom Paxton allegedly had an affair.”

Spicy!

Paxton denied any wrongdoing. He also fired the staffers — and they subsequently sued him.

“Our preference was to remain silent while the wheels of justice turned, and our civil case progressed in the courts,” they said in a statement at the time. “However, in recent weeks, Paxton has made numerous false and misleading public statements that we feel obligated to correct.”

In February 2023, Paxton agreed to settle the lawsuit brought by his former staffers — for $3.3 million.

“We think this settlement goes a long way toward restoring the good reputations of the men who brought this suit against the attorney general’s office,” said a lawyer for one of the men involved in the suit. “They should never have been fired in the first place. This settlement confirms that in a big way.”

The question then became where the $3+ million would come from. Paxton insisted the money should come from state funds; House Republicans, including Speaker Dade Phelan, balked.

The argument made by Paxton was that he had not been sued — the state Attorney General’s office has been sued. That’s true — but only because under the state’s whistleblower act, you can’t sue an individual, only a government agency.

In addition to the settlement with the whistleblowers, there is an ongoing FBI investigation into the allegations they made about Paxton and his relationship with Paul. Little information about it is available.

It’s also worth noting here that Paxton emerged as a national figure in the wake of the 2020 election when he became one of the most ardent defenders of Donald Trump’s conspiracy theory that the election was somehow stolen.

Paxton, through his position as AG of Texas, brought a lawsuit against a handful of swing states who, the suit alleged, had made a series of pandemic-related voting changes that were illegal. The Supreme Court dismissed the suit in a single sentence.

For Paxton, those years of problems and controversies culminated Saturday when Republicans brought a 20-count impeachment charge against him. (You can read it, in full, here.)

The impeachment charges are, generally speaking, a rehashing of the various allegations made against Paxton over the past decade-plus — including his relationship with Paul, the donor, and various other allegations made by his former staffers.

The vote was 121-23 with 60 Republicans joined 61 Democrats in voting in favor of Paxton’s impeachment.

Despite his increasing political peril, Paxton still retains the support of one Donald J. Trump.

“The RINO Speaker of the House of Texas, Dade Phelan, who is barely a Republican at all and failed the test on voter integrity, wants to impeach one of the most hard working and effective Attorney Generals in the United States, Ken Paxton, who just won re-election with a large number of American Patriots strongly voting for him,” Trump said on Saturday via Truth Social.

Later, he criticized Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for his silence on Paxton. “MISSING IN ACTION! Where is the Governor of Texas on his Attorney General’s Impeachment,” Trump posted.

It’s not clear whether Trump’s outspoken support for Paxton will influence the coming impeachment trial in the Texas state Senate.

There are currently 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats in the chamber. That would likely mean that 9 Republicans would have to join the 12 Democrats for Paxton to be removed from office.

Fun fact: Paxton’s wife, Angela, now holds the state Senate district that he once represented in the middle of the last decade! She has not said whether she will recuse herself from the proceedings.

While the specific date for the trial has yet to be set, it will start no later than August 28, according to Axios.