In a vote that came with a surprising result, which was suddenly scheduled in recent days, the Texas House of Representatives, where the Republican Party represents the majority, dismissed the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, a staunch and hawkish ally of Donald Trump.
Paxton, 60, was first elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2018 and 2022, the last time with a ten percentage point advantage over his Democratic opponent (53%-43%) — a result that has proven the lawyer and politician popular with Republican voters. In Texas, two years after he emerged as one of the main purveyors of electoral fraud complaints unleashed by Trump during the 2020 presidential election.
That year, Paxton led a group of other US attorneys general, all elected by the Republican Party, in a complaint to the US Supreme Court in December 2020 related to the presidential election.
In the complaint — which has been summarily analyzed by most Supreme Court justices, except for conservatives Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — Republicans, on behalf of Texas, contested election results in four states (Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin). ) where Joe Biden was declared the winner.
In the months leading up to the 2020 presidential election, Paxton was charged by Cabinet officials with corruption to protect a friend and real estate developer in Texas. After the allegations, some employees quit and others were fired, which led to a lawsuit against Paxton.
The main reason for the impeachment vote, which passed Saturday night, was Paxton’s request, earlier this year, that the Texas Congress — the state’s taxpayers — pay in his name more than $3 million (€2.8 million) in compensation. He was sentenced in court for illegal dismissal of his office staff.
Following this request, the Texas House of Representatives—less Whig than the Republican majority in the state Senate—opened an investigation into Paxton, which culminated in a motion to impeach the attorney general.
The responsible person encountered 20 articles of isolationmostly related to the reported corruption case in 2020 and the use of public money to protect the businessman, friends and other financiers of his election campaign.
a isolation Paxton passed by 121 votes in favor, 23 against, and 2 abstentions—well above the required 75 votes and a majority of Republicans who voted for him.
to be effectively removed from office — which, if it happens, would be the first such case in Texas since 1917, when the state Congress push him away Then-Governor James Ferguson – Paxton will have to be tried and convicted by a two-thirds majority in the Senate, in a process yet to be scheduled.
The composition of the Texas Senate (19-12 in favor of Republicans) tends to favor Paxton.
In addition to the attorney general being able to survive impeachment even if eight Republicans vote to convict him—which is unlikely, given that many Republican senators are also from a deeply conservative district—Paxton will be able to count on votes from senators who They are his old friends as well as his wife, Angela Paxton, Senator since 2019.
Shortly before voting began Saturday night, Paxton received support from Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
In a message posted on the social network Truth Social, the former US president threatened to participate in the primary elections of Republican congressmen who voted for isolation; Cruz lamented that it was the Republican Party itself that promoted the prosecution of “one of the most conservative prosecutors in the entire country in the last nine years.”
