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The Texas Tribune reports:
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 New York Times reports:
The recommendation thrust the State Capitol and its Republican leadership into uncharted political territory in the waning days of the legislative session, setting the stage for the House to hold a vote on impeachment, its first in decades and one of the few ever conducted in the state’s history. If he is impeached, Mr. Paxton, who has been under a separate criminal indictment since 2015, would be required to step down from his post temporarily while facing trial in the State Senate.
“There’s really no precedent — we’ve really only had two impeachments under the constitution of 1876,” said Mark P. Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University. They include the governor in 1917, who resigned the day before the Senate convicted him. Mr. Paxton has been allied with the most strident Republican legislators in Texas and Trump, in a camp that also includes the lieutenant governor and leader of the State Senate, Dan Patrick.
Among the many allegations lodged against Paxton is that he did political favors for a major donor in return for a “top to bottom” remodel of his home. The donor also allegedly gave a job to Paxton’s alleged mistress. Paxton’s wife is a state senator. Paxton is also facing disbarment by the Texas State Bar for his Supreme Court lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 election results in four other states. Then there’s that federal securities fraud case that has lingered since 2015.
Breaking: A Texas House committee voted unanimously to recommend that AG Ken Paxton be impeached and removed from office.
Paxton now faces the prospect of indictment by the full chamber where he may have few remaining allies. https://t.co/SlTVckhx6m
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) May 25, 2023