By Acacia Coronado, Jim Vertuno and Jake Bleiberg - The Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The GOP-led Texas House of Representatives is set to hold a historic impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday as the scandal-plagued Republican called on supporters to protest a vote that could lead to his impeachment.
The House of Representatives has scheduled for 2 p.m. the start of debate on whether to remove and suspend Paxton from office on allegations of bribery, incapacity for office and abuse of public trust. Some of the allegations that have dogged Texas' top lawyer for most of his three terms.
The hearing sets up what could be a remarkably sudden drop for one of the Republican Party's most prominent legal fighters, which in 2020 asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn former President Donald Trump's election defeat by Joe Biden. Only two officials in Texas' nearly 200-year history have been impeached.
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Paxton, 60, has called the impeachment process "political theater" based on "gossip and gossip, parroting long-denied claims," and an attempt to disenfranchise voters who re-elected him in November. On Friday, he called on his supporters "to come peacefully to make your voice heard tomorrow at the Capitol."
Paxton has been under FBI investigation for years over allegations that he used his office to help a donor and was separately indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015, though he has yet to be tried. Until this week, his fellow Republicans had taken a low-key stance on the allegations.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton reads a statement in his office, Friday, May 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas.
Impeachment requires a simple majority in the House. That means only a tiny fraction of his 85 Republicans would have to join 64 Democrats to vote against him.
In the event of impeachment, Paxton would be removed from office pending a Senate trial, and it would be up to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to name an interim replacement. Final impeachment would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, which includes Angela, Paxton's wife.
Texas' top elected Republicans have been remarkably silent on Paxton this week. But some party members began rallying around him on Friday, with state GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi calling the process a "sham."
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In a sense, Paxton's political peril came with breakneck speed: The House committee's investigation into him came to light Tuesday, and lawmakers issued 20 articles of impeachment on Thursday.
But for Paxton's detractors, the rebuke came years late.
In 2014 he admitted to violating Texas securities law, and a year later he was charged with securities fraud in his hometown near Dallas, accused of defrauding investors in a tech startup. He pleaded not guilty to two felonies that carry a possible sentence of five to 99 years.
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He opened a legal defense fund and accepted $100,000 from an executive whose company was being investigated by Paxton's office for Medicaid fraud. Another $50,000 was donated by an Arizona retiree whose son Paxton later hired for a high-ranking position, but was soon fired after showing child pornography at a meeting.
In 2020, Paxton intervened in a mountainous Colorado community where a Texas donor and college classmate was facing eviction from his lakeside home on coronavirus orders.
But what ultimately triggered the impeachment push was Paxton's relationship with Austin real estate developer Nate Paul.
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In 2020, eight senior aides told the FBI they were concerned that Paxton was misusing his position to assist Paul in connection with the developer's unproven claims that an elaborate conspiracy to steal $200 million of his properties was underway. The FBI searched Paul's home in 2019, but he has not been charged and denies doing anything wrong. Paxton also told members of his staff that he had an affair with a woman who later emerged to have worked for Paul.
The impeachment accuses Paxton of trying to interfere in foreclosure trials and issuing legal opinions to benefit Paul. The bribery allegations allege Paul hired the woman Paxton had an affair with in exchange for legal help and paid for expensive renovations to the attorney general's home.
A senior attorney in Paxton's office, Chris Hilton, said Friday that the attorney general paid for all repairs and renovations.
Other allegations, including lying to investigators, date back to Paxton's still-pending securities fraud allegation.
Four of the aides who reported Paxton to the FBI subsequently filed a lawsuit under the Texas whistleblower law, and in February the prosecutor agreed to settle the case for $3.3 million. The House committee said it was Paxton seeking legislative approval for the payment that prompted its investigation.
"Were it not for Paxton's own request for a taxpayer-funded settlement for his wrongdoing, Paxton would not face impeachment," the panel said.
