Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial starts Tuesday morning, three months after 60 of his fellow Republicans in the state House joined Democrats in voting to remove the state’s top law enforcement officer from his post.
Veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove is calling it the biggest state political trial since the 2009 removal from office of then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who like Paxton was accused of corruption, influence peddling and accepting bribes.
Paxton was impeached by the House in May and suspended, charged with accepting bribes from Austin real estate tycoon Nate Paul and misusing the powers of his office to help Paul thwart an FBI investigation into his businesses.
Among the alleged favors from Paul, prosecutors say he created a secret Uber account that Paxton used to conceal trips to see a woman with whom he was having an affair in 2020.
Paxton has denied any wrongdoing, criticizing the impeachment as an attempt to “overthrow the will of the people and disenfranchise the voters of our state.” He has said the charges are based on “hearsay and gossip, parroting long-disproven claims.”
Many of the allegations in the 20 articles of impeachment against Paxton were public long before November 2022, when he won reelection with a margin of nearly 10 percent, twice as big as his margin of victory in 2018.
Who is Ken Paxton?
Paxton is a longtime fixture in Texas politics, serving in the state House and Senate before his election as attorney general in 2014, and then reelection in 2018 and 2022.
Until his impeachment, he was best known for challenging Barack Obama’s executive orders and legislative achievements in court – including battles against Obamacare and the former president’s immigration orders.
In an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, he asked the US Supreme Court to invalidate the Electoral College votes of four swing states won by Joe Biden. The lawsuit was dismissed. Paxton then traveled to Washington to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, 2021, where the attorney general told the crowd, which included people who would soon riot at the Capitol, “We will not quit fighting.”
Paxton has faced scandal for years. He was indicted by a grand jury in 2015 on securities fraud charges following allegations that he misled investors about his financial ties to a technology company while selling shares of that company. That case has still not gone to trial and has been delayed by years of disputes over where the trial should take place.
How the impeachment trial will work
The Texas Senate’s impeachment trial begins Tuesday and is expected to last two or three weeks. Patrick, the lieutenant governor and a Paxton ally, will preside, serving in a judge-like role.
Tuesday morning, the Senate clerk will read the state House’s 20 articles of impeachment one by one and ask Paxton or his lawyer to plead on each. Paxton can either appear in person or by counsel. He can plead guilty or not guilty.
After the reading of the articles and Paxton’s pleas, the House impeachment managers and their legal team will have 60 minutes to make their opening statement, followed by Paxton’s team, also with 60 minutes.
Then the House managers will start presenting their case. Each side gets 24 hours to present evidence and witnesses, which could stretch out over days. Paxton’s lawyers have said the attorney general will not testify, though it’s possible House managers could compel him to take the stand via subpoena.
Each side will also get 60 minutes for closing arguments. Paxton’s side will close first, followed by the House impeachment managers.
At the end, senators will deliberate behind closed doors and will submit a written vote for each article.
How Paxton has responded
Paxton has described his impeachment as a “politically motivated sham” and has consistently denied wrongdoing.
The Texas Tribune reported that at a Collin County GOP picnic Saturday, Paxton criticized Texas House GOP leadership. “Let’s clean house,” he said.
Paxton has long aligned himself with the most conservative, hard-line forces in the GOP – and many of those forces have backed him. Trump has supported him, lambasting the Republicans who impeached him as “RINOS,” or Republicans in name only, and calling his impeachment “election interference.”
