(Austin) The Republican-dominated Texas House of Representatives on Saturday impeached state attorney general Ken Paxton on charges of bribery and breach of trust. A sudden and historic rebuke from a fellow Republican who has risen to stardom in the conservative legal movement despite years of scandal and alleged crimes.
The vote results in the immediate suspension of Mr. Paxton pending the outcome of a trial in the State Senate and allows Republican Governor Greg Abbott to appoint someone else as the first counsel for the Texas in the meantime.
The vote is a downfall for one of the Republican Party’s most prominent legal fighters, who in 2020 asked the United States Supreme Court to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral defeat to Donald Trump. Mr. Paxton is thus only the third sitting government official to be impeached in nearly 200 years of Texas history.
Mr Paxton, 60, decried what he called “political theatre” based on “hearsay and gossip, repeating claims long since refuted”, and said it was of an attempt to disenfranchise the voters who re-elected him in November. It’s unclear where the attorney general was on Saturday, but during the House of Representatives session, he shared statements from his supporters on Twitter.