The Texas Senate acquitted the Attorney General in an impeachment trial

A Texas Attorney General’s Trial During the FBI Investigation of an Associated Press-Federal Investigation into the Paul Paxton Controversy

On the day after his former employees reported him to the FBI, Paxton paid a construction company over $121,000.

House impeachment managers also alleged that Paul paid for Paxton’s home renovations, particularly new cabinets and countertops — something the defense argued never happened, showing photos as evidence that the countertops had not been changed.

The FBI is investigating the allegations made by his former employees. According to The Associated Press, prosecutors took grand jury testimony from Paxton’s former personal aide Drew Wicker in August.

The House’s move came after Paxton asked for $3.3 million to settle a lawsuit with four of his former deputies who sued him after being fired shortly after they reported Paxton’s alleged misdeeds to the FBI.

Despite a process overseen by Republicans, with Republicans in the defense and in the prosecution, the result ended in near party-line votes, with members of his party lining up behind Paxton. Only two Republican senators voted in favor of conviction on any article. With a two-thirds vote required for conviction, no article received even a majority vote.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was acquitted Saturday in an impeachment trial before the state Senate. The man was accused of abusing his office to protect someone.

“We don’t have a lot of evidence in this case, we just know they don’t like Ken Paxton, and he shouldn’t be done with this job,” he said.

The allegations made by the House, which were baseless, were claimed to be due to Paxton’s political enemies.

But Leach said Paxton had been given ample opportunities to answer questions about the allegations and decided not to do so. He urged senators to convict “no matter how painful.”

“I have loved Ken Paxton for a long time,” Leach said, holding back tears. “I’ve done life with Ken Paxton — we’ve traveled together, attend church together.”

In a memorable moment for the prosecution, GOP state Rep. Jeff Leach, an impeachment manager who represents Paxton’s district, spoke directly to the Republican majority in the Senate, saying he considered Paxton a political mentor and a dear friend.

“Mr. Paxton’s attorneys like to remind everyone that he was elected by 4.4 million voters,” Murr said. “But they have blindly ignored the fact that he has ultimately ended up serving one person — himself.”

“Who would replace Paxton, one of the TOUGHEST & BEST Attorney Generals in the Country?” Trump wrote. “Democrats are feeling very good right now as they watch, as usual, the Republicans fight & eat away at each other.”

Since he was elected, Paxton has sued the Obama and Biden administrations over immigration, abortion, federal spending and more. He filed a lawsuit in order to have the election results in five states thrown out. That attempt was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.

After the vote on Saturday, Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor, gave a speech imploring Republicans in the House to return the articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial, as he had been the judge during the trial.

Millions of taxpayer dollars were spent on this impeachment. He said the Senate had held a thorough trial, which included hundreds of subpoenas for information and testimony. As he spoke, one Democratic senator walked out of the Senate chamber.

He was not in the chamber for the votes on Saturday because he only appeared during the trial’s first few days. After his acquittal, his wife, Senator Angela Paxton, hugged or shook hands with the lawyers who represented him, including Tony Buzbee, a Houston trial lawyer, one of the many high-powered lawyers involved in the case on both sides.

The Defend Texas Liberty group gave Mr. Patrick $1 million and a $2 million loan to help cover the cost of his campaign. After the acquittal, the group’s leader promised “to lead the charge to fire” those Republicans who supported the impeachment.

After the vote, some senators were eager to talk about the case since they had not been allowed to speak during the trial.

Senator Nathan Johnson, a Democrat, disagreed. “He abused his powers, not in a subtle way,” he said of Mr. Paxton, adding that the case had been proven by the evidence. He felt sick when he saw the United States flag and Texas flag blowing strong in the wind and the rain, because what are they doing to what those flags represent inside this building?

Only two Republicans voted in favor of conviction, one of which is Kelly Hancock, an urban and suburban district representative who represents parts of Fort Worth and a third who is Robert Nichols, an iconoclast from East Texas. (Ms. Paxton was ineligible to vote under the rules.)

The impeachment trial focused on 16 articles of impeachment related to accusations, leveled primarily by former top deputies who became whistle-blowers, that Mr. Paxton had abused his office to help an Austin real estate investor, Nate Paul, who was said to have given Mr. Paxton help with home renovations and an extramarital affair in return.

It would have taken 21 of the 31 senators to vote in favor of conviction on any of the 16 articles to remove him from office. The impeachment articles did not get more than 14 votes.

A Herculean Spectator’s Tale of a Silent House, Or, And The Protest of Impeachment

“This was a herculean task,” said Mr. Buzbee, the lead defense lawyer. We were proud of this case. We just should not have had to prove our innocence, but that’s what we did.”

The senators cast their votes for or against impeachment by writing on the slip of paper on their desks and giving them to read aloud, one by one.

As they voted, the Senate chamber was almost completely silent. A storm passed over the Capitol, breaking the quiet with rumbles of thunder. The sound of crickets sometimes could be heard in the spectator gallery and in some instances, they hopped between the chairs.

In the end, the vote resembled many that take place in the staunchly conservative Texas Senate, where Mr. Patrick rules with a strong hand and legislation is adopted almost exclusively along party-line votes.