Texas Panel Recommends Impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton
Before the vote, the committee met in an executive session, outside public view.
“Overturning elections begins behind closed doors,” Mr. Paxton said in a post on Twitter that included video of a lawyer from his office arguing against impeachment to reporters in a nearly empty committee room, while the committee’s deliberations were underway.
The extraordinary developments were likely to test the Republican Party in Texas in new and unpredictable ways, at a time when divisions in the party have increasingly been exposed.
The Texas House is led by Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican representing Beaumont who is seen as a traditional conservative. In contrast, Mr. Paxton has been allied with the most strident Republican legislators in Texas and with former President Donald J. Trump, in a camp that also includes the lieutenant governor and leader of the State Senate, Dan Patrick.
The House investigations committee, made up of three Republicans and two Democrats, voted unanimously to go forward with impeachment proceedings during a brief public session. “The chair moves that the committee adopt the articles of impeachment against Warren Kenneth Paxton, attorney general of the state of Texas,” said the chairman, Andrew Murr, a Republican.
It was not immediately clear when the House would take up the articles of impeachment and conduct a floor vote, though several members said they expected it would occur before the session ended on Monday. If not, lawmakers could call themselves back into a special session at any point to deliberate.
Source: The New York Times
