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Hell must be freezing over today!
After eight years of breathtaking, public corruption, Texas Republicans finally decided to notice that Attorney General Ken Paxton is a fireball of criminality and an embarrassment to the state where he serves as the highest law enforcement officer. On Wednesday, the House General Investigating Committee held a three-hour public hearing in which they discussed Paxton’s numerous (alleged!) crimes, all of which have been widely reported for years. And yesterday the panel of three Republicans and two Democrats unanimously voted to refer articles of impeachment to the full body for deliberation.
So, bully for them! Although they didn’t say a goddamn word about this corrupt sumbitch until they were absolutely forced to do it, so, let’s not go overboard with praise here.
The 20 proposed articles of impeachment trace the outlines of a story which has been public for years. The committee charges Paxton with several counts of disregard of his official duty by using his office to benefit Nate Paul, a shady real estate developer who donated $25,000 to Paxton’s campaign. After the FBI raided Paul’s office in 2019, Paxton not only gave him non-public information about the investigation, but his office paid a private attorney to investigate state and federal law enforcement officials, producing 30 grand jury subpoenas. He also dummied up an official opinion to help Paul block foreclosures on his properties, as well as intervening in a fraud dispute between Paul and a public charity.
Two articles charge Paxton with Constitutional Bribery for accepting a gut rehab of his house at Paul’s expense, as well as employment for Paxton’s girlfriend.
Staff at the Attorney General’s Office eventually revolted, with several filing a whistleblower report, after which Paxton fired them. There are several articles charging him with misapplication and misappropriation of public resources, as well as false statements in relation to the “sham investigation” and “lengthy written report containing false or misleading statements” purporting to refute the whistleblowers’ claims. And after all of that, Paxton then “engaged in a public and private campaign to impugn the employees’ professional reputations or prejudice their future employment.”
Four of the whistleblowers sued, and in February they reached a $3.3 million settlement which would have kept the case out of court. But the Legislature would have to appropriate that cash, and that appears to have sparked the investigation which led to this impeachment. Once they had to look at it, they decided that using public funds to cover up a bribery scandal was actually not cool.
Having opened the door, though, the committee figured they might as well throw everything at him. It’s not exactly a secret that Paxton has been under state indictment for securities fraud since 2015 and managed to “conceal[] the facts underlying his criminal charges from voters by causing protracted delay of the trial, which deprived the electorate of the opportunity to make an informed decision when voting for attorney general.” In one particularly egregious delay tactic, Paxton got a donor to file a lawsuit seeking to defund the prosecutors.
In short, they accuse him of “bringing the Office of Attorney General into scandal and disrepute to the prejudice of public confidence in the government of this State” and demand his removal.
But Ken Paxton didn’t get where he is in this life because he’s afraid to throw a punch. Or tell an egregious lie — but that one goes without saying. He immediately came out with a statement accusing Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan of being a liberal in thrall to “highly partisan Democrat lawyers” seeking to block his fight for “conservative Texas values.”
The liberal leadership of the Texas House has routinely killed conservative legislation including important bills which would help secure our border and protect the integrity of our elections. They have demonstrated nothing but contempt for the traditional values of conservative Texans. It is not surprising that a committee appointed by liberal Speaker Dade Phelan would seek to disenfranchise Texas voters and sabotage my work as Attorney General. The false testimony of highly partisan Democrat lawyers with the goal of manipulating and misleading the public is reprehensible. Every allegation is easily disproved, and I look forward to continuing my fight for conservative Texas values.
Then he demanded that the committee investigate Phelan for being drunk on duty, which does appear to be the case. Although its relevance to Paxton’s breathtaking campaign of corruption seems unclear.
And finally he dispatched his trusty lieutenant Chris Hilton to shout outside the closed-door committee hearing that it’s illegal to impeach someone for conduct that took place before the last election, so anything that Paxton did before November is off limits.
So, congratulations to the Texas Legislature, for finally acknowledging the reality that’s been in front of everyone’s faces for years on end. Woulda been nice if y’all coulda stepped up to the plate when Paxton abused his office to target trans kids and their parents, or women seeking health care, or free speech, or vaccine makers. Plus that was that time when he tried to steal an election.
But, you got there! Now let’s see if you can bring it home and convict that corrupt asshole.
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