By James Barragán, Robert Downen and Zach Despart, The Texas Tribune

In an unprecedented move, a Texas House committee voted Thursday to recommend that Attorney General Ken Paxton be impeached and removed from office, citing 20 accusations that include bribery, retaliating against whistleblowers and obstruction of justice.

Around 8 p.m., the House General Investigating Committee filed its impeachment resolution with the House clerk. It included the 20 articles listing a yearslong pattern of alleged misconduct and lawbreaking that investigators detailed one day earlier. On the House floor, some lawmakers could be heard yelling the number of the newly filed articles, and several could be seen reading the document minutes after it was filed.

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.

State Rep. Andrew Murr, chair of the investigating committee, followed by telling House members that the impeachment resolution alleged “grave offenses,” justifying the committee’s action.

“After a period of time for your review and reflection, I intend to call up the resolution adopting the articles of impeachment. If you have any questions at all, please come visit with me or any other member of our committee,” said Murr, R-Junction.

[Here are the 20 articles of impeachment filed against Ken Paxton]

During a specially called meeting earlier Thursday afternoon, the committee voted unanimously to refer the 20 articles of impeachment to the full chamber.

No Texas Legislature has impeached an attorney general, an extraordinary step that lawmakers have historically reserved for public officials who faced serious allegations that they had abused their powers.

In a statement earlier Thursday, Paxton sought to turn the tables on allegations that he acted in a corrupt manner while in office, blaming the move toward impeachment proceedings on “corrupted politicians in the Texas House.”

“It is a sad day in Texas as we witness the corrupt political establishment unite in an illegitimate attempt to overthrow the will of the people and disenfranchise the voters of our state,” he said.

[Attorney General Ken Paxton faces impeachment. Here’s how that works in Texas.]

Thursday afternoon, a representative from Paxton’s office demanded to testify in front of the House committee probing Paxton’s alleged criminal acts and decried the committee’s actions as “illegal.”

Chris Hilton, chief of general litigation for the attorney general’s office, interrupted the five-member panel’s brief meeting to demand to testify on behalf of Paxton’s office. Murr shook his head and moved forward with the meeting, which went into executive session almost immediately after gaveling in.

“The people deserve to hear from this office in the context of this investigation,” Hilton said. “The voters want Ken Paxton, and this committee — by investigating him, by not allowing us to be heard here today, by never reaching out to us at any time during this investigative process — is trying to thwart the will of the voters. We deserve to be heard here today.”

Once the committee returned from meeting in private, members voted to issue “preservation letters” directing the Department of Public Safety and the Texas Facilities Commission to protect pertinent information. The committee did not discuss what information it wanted preserved.

Then committee members voted to adopt the articles of impeachment with discussion.

Thursday’s events came one day after the committee listened to three hours of testimony detailing allegations pointing to a yearslong pattern of misconduct and questionable actions by Paxton, which included criminal charges for securities fraud and allegations by his former top deputies that Paxton used his office to benefit a friend and political donor.

Many of the allegations detailed Wednesday were already known, but the public airing of them revealed the wide scope of the committee’s investigation into the state’s top lawyer, a member of the ruling Republican Party. The investigative committee has broad power to investigate state officials for wrongdoing, and three weeks ago the House expelled Bryan Slaton, R-Royse City, on its recommendation.

Only the Texas House can bring impeachment proceedings against state officials, which would lead to a trial by the Senate. Under the Texas Constitution, Paxton would be suspended from office pending the outcome of the Senate trial. The constitution also allows the governor to appoint a provisional replacement.

Removal from office would require the support of two-thirds of senators present. This has happened only twice in Texas history, to Gov. James Ferguson in 1917 and District Judge O.P. Carrillo in 1975.

In an interview with WFAA late Thursday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Republican who would preside over a trial, wouldn't say whether he believes there are the votes to convict in the Senate.

"We will all be responsible as any juror would be — if that turns out to be — and I think the members will do their duty," he said.

After being rejected from testifying before the House investigating committee Thursday, Hilton told reporters the panel’s actions were illegal under a section of Texas law that says a “state officer may not be removed from office for an act the officer may have committed before the officer’s election to office.”

Hilton argued that the statute meant “any impeachment can only be about conduct since the most recent elections.”

On Twitter, the Texas District and County Attorneys Association said it’s unclear if Paxton could be impeached for conduct that occurred before his latest election. The so-called forgiveness doctrine prohibits “most” officials from being removed from office for conduct that predated their most recent election, "absent a felony conviction," the association said. But, the organization added, statutes outlining the doctrine have been applied only to local officials.

“Maybe we’ll get to see some new law made,” the organization added.

During Wednesday’s hearing, investigators told the committee’s three Republicans and two Democrats about allegations that Paxton had repeatedly abused his office to help a friend and political donor, Austin real estate investor Nate Paul. They largely relied on claims made by four former senior employees who filed a whistleblower lawsuit in 2022 arguing that Paxton improperly fired them after they reported concerns about Paxton’s actions to federal and state investigators.

The committee investigators said Paxton may have committed at least three felonies in an effort to help Paul with various legal troubles. These included spending $72,000 in staff labor on tasks that benefited the developer, providing Paul with an internal FBI file related to an investigation into Paul, and hiring an outside lawyer for $25,000 to conduct work that primarily benefited Paul.

Committee investigators also discussed criminal charges that have been pending against Paxton since 2015, when a Collin County grand jury indicted him on two counts of felony securities fraud related to private business deals in 2011. According to those charges, Paxton solicited investors into Servergy Inc. without disclosing that the McKinney tech company was paying him to promote its stock.

Suddenly, the three-term incumbent Paxton found himself in the greatest political peril of his tenure — not because of the FBI, which began investigating him in 2020, but rather from a little-known legislative committee.

While the committee investigators said Paxton may have broken numerous laws, impeachment is ultimately a political process. House members will have broad leeway to decide what is an impeachable offense.

For Democrats, the calculus is simple. They have cast Paxton as corrupt for years and will likely be unanimous in support of impeachment. Some Democrats, including Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos of Richardson, began calling for impeachment Wednesday.

Republicans must wrestle with whether to indict a top state official in their own party, one who is popular with conservative voters and who survived a primary last year in which opponents tried to tar him with similar allegations of misconduct.

Paxton has positioned himself as a champion of far-right causes and an ally of former President Donald Trump. His unsuccessful lawsuit challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election solidified his appeal in conservative legal circles, and Trump later endorsed his reelection bid. A path to Paxton’s survival could include rallying this base.

“Few in America have done more to advance the conservative legal movement,” former Trump adviser Stephen Miller tweeted Thursday. “Stand with Ken.”

Gov. Greg Abbott has yet to come to Paxton’s defense, declining to comment on the committee’s allegations against the attorney general.

But Paxton has alienated some House Republicans. He has repeatedly criticized House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, and his leadership as insufficiently conservative. And hours before the investigative committee revealed Tuesday that it had secretly launched a probe into Paxton, the attorney general called on Phelan to resign, pointing to a video of the speaker slurring his words to accuse him of presiding over the House while drunk.

No Republican House members have yet called for Paxton’s impeachment. But Jeff Leach, R-Plano, urged the public to tune in to Wednesday’s committee hearing, which he said would discuss “issues of vital importance.”

“Make no mistake,” Leach said on Twitter. “The Texas House will do our job and uphold our oaths of office.”

And Phelan, who in early May cited his role as the House’s presiding officer as the reason why he did not comment on sexual misconduct allegations against Slaton until after the chamber expelled him, has dropped that approach with Paxton. The speaker on Wednesday called the committee investigators’ report “extremely disturbing” and said Paxton “appears to have routinely abused his office for personal gain.”

Republicans for years have fended off questions about Paxton’s legal and ethical issues, variously deferring to courts to decide them and voters to determine if they were disqualifying. A key question is why the Republican-led House is acting against Paxton now.

Phelan said the House had an obligation to vet the whistleblowers’ claims because a proposed settlement between the four former employees and Paxton’s office would have cost $3.3 million — funds the Legislature would have to approve.

Murr expressed concern Wednesday that the settlement would help Paxton avoid a trial at which evidence of his alleged misdeeds would become public.

Lawyers for the whistleblowers said that while they valued the committee’s work, the Legislature’s job would not be complete until lawmakers approved the settlement for their clients.

“Paxton’s egregious conduct wouldn’t have come to light but for the bravery of our clients. As investigators noted yesterday, they all lost their careers because of what they did,” said Joe Knight, an attorney for Ryan Vassar, one of the top deputies who was fired after reporting Paxton’s actions to the FBI. “The Legislature’s work is not done in my opinion if it merely impeaches Ken Paxton. It has to approve the settlement.”

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/25/ken-paxton-impeachment-investigation/.

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