Texas House impeachment hearings for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton began Saturday afternoon.
There was already a “bombshell” development in the proceedings, KXAN News Ryan Chandler reports.
PAXTON IMPECACHMENT WIRE:
we are out The Clerk of the House is reading the 20 articles of impeachment in full before a tense chamber and a packed gallery.
Follow here and @KXAN_News #txlege pic.twitter.com/gOTW3nVOeX
— Ryan Chandler (@RyanChandler98) May 27, 2023
“We’re here today because the Attorney General asked the Legislature to fund a multibillion dollar settlement against him,” said @charliegeren, a member of the investigative committee.
“The committee makes clear that Paxton would not be facing removal but for this settlement request,” Chandler reported.
“General House Investigative Committee member Oscar Longoria is asking members to carefully consider the evidence of ‘not only unethical, but possibly criminal actions,'” the report notes.
“This is key: ‘You don’t have to have proof of anything beyond a reasonable doubt or by a preponderance of the evidence,'” Rep. Spiller tells members. “His job is not to condemn. Their job is that of a grand jury: to say whether there is sufficient cause to proceed with a trial.”
“We have a duty and an obligation to protect the people of Texas from elected officials who have used their office for personal gain … we must not ignore and pretend it didn’t happen. Texas is better than this,” he said GOP Rep. Spiller.
“Bombshell new info: @KenPaxtonTX called GOP House members and threatened political consequences if they voted to impeach him,” said Rep. Charlie Geren.
Konni Burton of The Texan took a look at the articles of impeachment. They allege that Paxton made “false or misleading misrepresentations or statements in official documents.”
Article XIV of the articles of impeachment against AG Paxton currently being introduced on the floor of the #txlege House. pic.twitter.com/niFTOCAU1z
— Connie Burton (@ConnieBurton) May 27, 2023
Article XIII of the articles of impeachment against AG Paxton are being introduced on the floor of the #txlege House right now. pic.twitter.com/YknB8K74C7
— Connie Burton (@ConnieBurton) May 27, 2023
Article XX of the articles of impeachment charges against AG Paxton currently being introduced on the floor of the #txlege House. pic.twitter.com/cENDTQB5eq
— Connie Burton (@ConnieBurton) May 27, 2023
Paxton’s impeachment has been overseen by anti-Trump Republicans and Democrats, the National Pulse reports. Texas Scorecard Explains Why Paxton’s Impeachment Vote Is ‘Unlawful’
Just days after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called for the resignation of Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan for being drunk on the job, Phelan’s lieutenants announced plans to illegally impeach him.
On Thursday, General Investigative Committee Chairman Andrew Murr (R–Kerrville) filed a resolution of impeachment against Paxton with 20 articles of impeachment with charges dating back to 2002.
Now Phelan is taking his war on conservatives to an even bigger level by launching an illegal impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Texas Government Code 665.081 states, “An officer of this state may not be removed from office for an act which the officer may have committed prior to the officer’s election to office.”
Friday night, Attorney General Paxton joined Matt Gaetz, who was filling in for Greg Kelly on Newsmax TV. Paxton explained to viewers how GOP lawmakers are carrying out an illegal impeachment that he first heard about on Tuesday.
“When you expose what these liberal Republicans are doing, which is basically cut deals with liberal Democrats, they get very angry because the last thing they want is someone like me exposing what they’re doing,” Paxton said. “And that’s what I’ve done with Phelan. Two years ago they tried to sneak in legislation where they reduced the penalty for illegal voting, where now you have to prove they knew the law when they made it, which meant there was no prosecution. We caught it, we exposed it. These are the kinds of things that Phelan finds infuriating. And unfortunately for him, we caught it and exposed it, even though he’s a Republican.”
“Are you sure you have the votes to block an impeachment by the Texas State House?” Gaetz asked.
“No, that’s done,” Paxton replied. “I think they decided they thought I was going to lose my election to Bush, and they were really upset when I won. And they came up with this plan, I think months and months ago, maybe right after I was re-elected, thinking that the voters they weren’t smart enough to figure it out. They’re going to fix it. And they started working on it about four months ago in secret. I literally first heard this on Tuesday, where they announced that they subpoenaed us. On Wednesday, they announced a investigation. On Thursday they announced the impeachment. And now on Saturday, the impeachment is moving forward. The members have not seen all the information. They have not let us in. We have a lot of information that would change the results of their investigation. They have refused to let -declare us. They’ve refused to let them give information. They’ve refused to let us correct things that even they know are wrong. And that’s the process we’re in. They want this done because the voters, in their opinion, weren’t smart enough to get it right and they’re going to fix it.”
In a Facebook Live Thursday afternoon, state Rep. Steve Toth (R–The Woodlands) cited the code and called the impeachment proceedings an “unlawful act.”
“It is very clear. You can’t remove a statewide official on an alleged indictment that occurred before the person was elected, and that’s exactly what they’re doing right now,” Toth said. “This is an illegal act “.
Texas Scorecard gave important background information on Phelan, adding: “Just this session, Phelan blocked a Republican-led vote on proposed rules to prevent him from appointing Democrats to chair House committees. After the GOP of Texas hit the airwaves with a radio ad in his district asking him not to empower Democrats, defied his party and appointed eight of them to chair powerful committees.
Paxton has been a powerful ally of Donald Trump, having brought a major lawsuit regarding unconstitutional changes to election law to the Supreme Court, only to be denied a hearing. Paxton has also tried to curb corrupt elections in the state’s blue-collar areas and filed major lawsuits against Big Pharma.
Former President Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post on Saturday, criticized the effort to impeach Paxton.
“Texas House RINO Speaker Dade Phelan, who is barely a Republican and failed the voter integrity test, wants to oust one of America’s hardest working and most effective Attorneys General, Ken Paxton, who ends of winning re-election with a large number of patriotic Americans voting for him strongly. You would think that any question would have been fully decided by the voters of Texas, especially when this vote was so conclusive,” he wrote.
“I love Texas, I won it twice in landslides and I saw a lot of other friends, including Ken Paxton, come with me,” he added. “Hopefully the Republicans in the Texas House will agree that this is a very unfair process that should not be allowed to happen or continue – I will fight you if it does. It’s the Radical Left Democrats, it’s the RINOS and criminals that never stop. ELECTION INTERFERENCE! Release Ken Paxton, let them wait for the next election!”
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