Politics

‘Bombshell’ Development Reported in Trump-Style Impeachment Hearing for Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton

28/05/2023
74 5 minutes read
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The Texas House impeachment hearings for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton kicked off on Saturday afternoon.

There was already one “bombshell” development in the proceedings, according to KXAN News reported Ryan Chandler.

“We’re here today because the Attorney General asked the legislature to fund a multi-million dollar settlement against him,” investigative committee member @charliegeren said.

“The committee makes clear Paxton would not be facing impeachment if not for that settlement request,” Chandler reported.

“House General Investigating Committee member Oscar Longoria asks members to thoughtfully consider the evidence of ‘not just unethical, but possibly criminal actions’,” the report noted.

“This is key: ‘You don’t have to have proof of anything beyond a reasonable doubt or by preponderance of the evidence’,” Rep. Spiller tells members. “Their job is not to convict. Their job is that of a grand jury- to say whether there are sufficient grounds to proceed with a trial.”

“We have a duty and obligation to protect the people of Texas from elected officials who have used their office for personal gain… we should not ignore and pretend it didn’t happen. Texas is better than that,” GOP Rep. Spiller said.

“Bombshell new information: @KenPaxtonTX called GOP House members and threatened political consequences if they vote to impeach him,” Rep. Charlie Geren said.

A glimpse at the impeachment articles were reported by Konni Burton of The Texan. They lay out accusations that Paxton made “misrepresentations or false or misleading statements in official filings.”

The Texas House impeachment vote is expected to take place within hours of the Articles if impeachment being filed.

Paxton’s impeachment has been overseen by anti-Trump Republicans and Democrats, as reported by the National Pulse. Texas Scorecard explains why the Paxton impeachment vote is “illegal.”

Just days after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton demanded Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan resign from office for being drunk on the job, Phelan’s lieutenants announced plans to illegally impeach him.

On Thursday, General Investigating Committee Chairman Andrew Murr (R–Kerrville) filed an impeachment resolution against Paxton with 20 articles of impeachment with charges dating as far back as 2002.

Now Phelan is taking his war on conservatives to an even greater level by launching an illegal impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Texas Government Code 665.081 states, “An officer in this state may not be removed from office for an act the officer may have committed before the officer’s election to office.”

On Friday night Attorney General Paxton joined Matt Gaetz who was filling in for Greg Kelly on Newsmax TV.  Paxton explained to viewers how the GOP lawmakers are running an illegal impeachment that he first heard about on Tuesday.

“When you expose what these liberal Republicans do, which is basically cut deals with liberal Democrats, they get really angry that the last thing they want is somebody around like me who exposes what they do,” Paxton said. “And I’ve done that with Phelan. They tried to sneak through legislation two years ago where they were reducing the penalty for illegal voting, where I would now have to prove that they knew the law when they did it, which meant no prosecutions. We caught him, we exposed it. Those are the types of things that Phelan finds infuriating. And unfortunately for him, we caught him and we exposed it, despite the fact that he’s a Republican.”

“Are you confident that you have the votes to block an impeachment by the Texas State House?” Gaetz asked.

“No, this has been done,” Paxton replied. “I think they decided they thought I was going to lose my election to Bush, and they became very disturbed when I won. And they concocted this plan, I think months and months ago, maybe right after my reelection, thinking that the voters just were not smart enough to figure this out. They’re going to fix it. And they started working on this about four months ago in secret. I literally first heard about this on Tuesday, where they announced they subpoenaed us. On Wednesday, they announced an investigation. On Thursday, they announced impeachment. And now on Saturday, the impeachment is going forward. The members haven’t seen all the information. They haven’t allowed us to participate. We have lots of information that would change the results of their investigation. They have refused to let us testify. They have refused to let us give them information. They have refused to allow us to 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 on Thursday afternoon, State Rep. Steve Toth (R–The Woodlands) quoted from the code and called the impeachment proceedings an “illegal act.”

“It’s really clear. You can’t remove a statewide officeholder under an alleged accusation that occurred before the person was elected, and that’s exactly what they are doing right now,” said Toth. “This is an illegal act.”

Texas Scorecard gave some important background information on Phelan, adding, “Just this session, Phelan blocked a Republican-led vote on a rules proposal to block him from appointing Democrats to chair House committees. After the Texas GOP went up on the airwaves with a radio ad in his district calling on him not to empower the Democrats, he defied his party and appointed eight of them to powerful committee chairmanships.

Paxton has been a powerful ally to Donald Trump, having brought a major lawsuit regarding unconstitutional election law changes to the Supreme Court, only to be denied a hearing. Paxton has also sought to rein in corrupt elections in deep blue parts of the state, and has filed major lawsuits against Big Pharma.

Former President Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post on Saturday, blasted the effort to impeach Paxton.

“The RINO Speaker of the House of Texas, Dade Phelan, who is barely a Republican at all and failed the test on voter integrity, wants to impeach one of the most hard working and effective Attorney Generals in the United States, Ken Paxton, who just won re-election with a large number of American Patriots strongly voting for him. You would think that any issue would have been fully adjudicated by the voters of Texas, especially when that vote was so conclusive,” he wrote.

“I love Texas, won it twice in landslides, and watched as many other friends, including Ken Paxton, came along with me,” he added. “Hopefully Republicans in the Texas House will agree that this is a very unfair process that should not be allowed to happen or proceed—I will fight you if it does. It is the Radical Left Democrats, RINOS, and Criminals that never stop. ELECTION INTERFERENCE! Free Ken Paxton, let them wait for the next election!”


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28/05/2023
74 5 minutes read

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