In the nearly 200-year history of the state, only two officials have previously been impeached.
In the United States, the investigative committee of the Texas House recommended on Thursday that the attorney general of the state Ken Paxton will be impeached for several different violations. Some of them may have been crimes.
The Republican-led investigative committee unanimously recommended that Paxton be impeached on charges including bribery, unfitness for office and breach of public trust.
Next, the House is expected to vote on impeaching Paxton. The case would be the first in decades in Texas, he says The New York Times. In the nearly 200-year history of the state, only two officials have previously been impeached.
Impeachment required a majority vote in the 150-seat lower house of parliament. Republicans hold a majority of seats, but it’s unclear how many supporters Paxton has.
Paxton served five terms in the state House of Representatives before becoming a senator in the upper house of the Texas House of Representatives. If Paxton, a Republican, is impeached, he would have to step down as attorney general pending a trial in the state Senate.
FBI investigation and fraud charges
For years, the FBI has been investigating Paxton on suspicions that he abused his position to help his wealthy donor.
Also, a large part of the parliamentary investigation committee’s reasoning for impeachment is related to the relationship between Paxton and the donor. The committee suspects that Paxton, among other things, tried to protect the donor from an FBI investigation.
In a separate case in 2015, Paxton was indicted on suspicion of securities fraud, but the case has yet to go to trial.
When the investigation by the Investigative Committee became public on Tuesday, Paxton claimed it was a political attack by the “liberal” Republican speaker of the House of Representatives. Dade Phelan would have taken the train.
Paxton called for Phelan to resign, claiming he was drunk during the parliamentary session last Friday. Phelan’s office called the accusation an attempt by Paxton to “save face.”
In 2020, Paxton asked the US Supreme Court to impeach the president Joe Biden election victory.
Source: AP