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Texas Senate to weigh fate of embattled AG Ken Paxton

  • Impeachment is a rare occurrence in Texas, state Senate will have to vote
  • Expert: Allegations were publicly known, yet Paxton was still elected
  • State Sen. Angela Paxton might have to vote on husband's impeachment
FILE - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at a news conference in Dallas on June 22, 2017. A Republican-led investigative committee on Thursday, May 25, 2023, recommended impeaching Paxton, the state’s top lawyer. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

FILE – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at a news conference in Dallas on June 22, 2017. A Republican-led investigative committee on Thursday, May 25, 2023, recommended impeaching Paxton, the state’s top lawyer. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

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AUSTIN, Texas (NewsNation) — A major showdown is looming in Texas with national implications: The state’s Senate is holding a trial for Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Texas’ GOP-led House impeached Paxton on Saturday on articles including bribery and abuse of public trust, a sudden, historic rebuke of a fellow Republican who rose to be a star of the conservative legal movement despite years of scandal and alleged crimes.

The vote triggered Paxton’s immediate suspension from office pending the outcome of the state’s Senate trial, and it empowered Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to appoint someone else as Texas’ top lawyer in the interim.

The Senate impeachment trial against Paxton will be held no later than Aug. 28, according to a resolution adopted on Monday evening by a unanimous vote.

This action followed the appointment of 12 House members who will effectively serve as prosecutors during the trial.

May Mailman, a former White House attorney during the Trump administration, explained that impeachment is a very rare occurrence in Texas, so many state senators are still trying to iron out the trial details.

She said there are no legal standards in Texas the grounds on which an official can be impeached, but explained that also doesn’t mean that anyone can be impeached for any reason.

“What’s unique here is that all of these allegations were really part of the public knowledge. Paxton won the primary, and then in the general, he won by 800,000 votes. So impeachments are always anti-democratic. But there’s something particularly anti-democratic about this one because the voters knew and they wanted Paxton anyway,” Mailman said.

A handful of politicians, including former President Donald Trump, have come to Paxton’s defense, stating they don’t believe the move against him is right.

In order to remove Paxton from office, it will take a two-thirds majority approval in the state Senate.

However, questions have begun to swirl about what Paxton’s wife, Angela Paxton, is going to do because she is a Texas senator.

Mailman said it is tough because Angela Paxton is faced with two conflicting standards: Every senator who is able to be present for an impeachment needs to be present and also, she’s supposed to recuse herself from areas where she has conflicts.

“If she recuses, it almost doesn’t matter, because the number of senators that you would need to impeach remains the same. If two senators recuse, then that would change the math,” Mailman explained.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Politics

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