Who Is Ken Paxton?

My VIP for this week is Ken Paxton, the conservative and powerful Texas Attorney General who was acquitted on all 16 articles of impeachment on Saturday after a two-week trial. To make a long story short, 70% of Republicans in the Texas House voted to impeach Paxton in May.

During the trial in the Texas Senate, the so-called evidence was presented, but the Senators did not believe it. “Only two of 19 Republican Senators voted in favor of convicting for any article – a stark contrast to the more than 70% of House Republicans who impeached the attorney general in May. 

In addition, “the Senate also voted 19-11 to dismiss the remining four articles of impeachment that the chamber had agree to set aside prior to the trial.” Paxton was immediately restored to his office by the not guilty verdicts. After his acquittal, Paxton released the following statement:

“The sham impeachment coordinated by the Biden Administration with liberal House Speaker Dade Phelan and his kangaroo court has cost taxpayers millions of dollars, disrupted the work of the Office of Attorney General and left a dark and permanent stain on the Texas House,” Paxton said in a statement. “The weaponization of the impeachment process to settle political differences is not only wrong, it is immoral and corrupt.”

Some of the senators made statements about the inappropriateness of the impeachment, but it was Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick who made the most powerful statement. According to Zach Despart in the Texas Tribune, Patrick served as an impartial judge for the trial but was no longer impartial once the trial was over. Despart explained that Patrick tore into “the House and its leadership for filing the case in the first place, which he said wasted millions of taxpayer dollars. He blasted the lower chamber for voting to impeach Paxton after only three days of consideration.” Despart then quoted Patrick as saying, “With virtually no time for 150 members to study the articles, the Speaker and his team rammed through the first impeachment of a statewide official in over 100 years.”

Paxton survived this attempt to remove him from office. However, he still faces a federal investigation “alleging crimes that mirror the impeachment charges” as well as “charges of securities fraud dating back to 2015.”