The Impeachment of Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr.
The House General Investigating Committee this week heard a stunning case for Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment. Tomorrow, the House will act on it.
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GET OUT YOUR POPCORN!
GET READY FOR MUST-SEE TV!
Watching the Texas House on TV is usually pretty dry and boring, although the somnolent Senate makes it look like Animal House. On Saturday, though, the House will consider the impeachment of a statewide official for the first time in a century. Here’s your handy guide to the drama.
Friday, May 26, 2023
Article 15 of the Texas Constitution provides for the impeachment of statewide elected officials, including the members of the Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals, as well as certain other elected officials.
For most of the last century, this would have been an answer to a trivia question. The last time a statewide official was impeached was in 1917, when Governor James “Pa” Ferguson’s corruption got out of hand and he started messing with the University of Texas. Pa was removed from office, then served as “shadow” governor when his wife, conveniently named “Ma” Ferguson, was elected governor in 1924.
The Mysterious “Matter A”
During April, the House General Investigating Committee held a few meetings where it discussed “Matter A” and “Matter B,” issuing a subpoena here and scheduling a hearing there. “Matter B” turned out to be the defenestration of State Rep. Bryan Slaton, who got a 19-year old intern on his staff drunk and had sex with her, then threatened her and her friends to keep quiet about the whole thing. As I wrote (“Bryan Slaton Gets His Due,” May 8), the General Investigating Committee produced a detailed “16-page report that confirmed most of the reported allegations against Slaton and recommended his expulsion from the Texas House.” The vote to expel Slaton was unanimous.
Anyway, “Matter A” turned out to be more consequential: an investigation into Twice-Indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request that the Legislature fork over $3.3 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed against Paxton for firing several top managers in the Office of Attorney General. The whistleblowers alleged that they’d been fired because they objected to Paxton’s close relationship with, and unethical-if-not-illegal interventions on behalf of, Austin real estate speculator Nate Paul.
The Committee hired a group of prosecutors with 120+ years of experience, much of it in public corruption cases, to investigate the whistleblowers’ complaints. The Committee met Wednesday morning, May 24, and heard a three-hour presentation from the panel.[1] The committee met again Thursday and after an executive session adopted Articles of Impeachment. The House will consider them tomorrow, Saturday.
The back-of-the-postcard summary is that Paxton, in return for campaign contributions, a home remodel, and a job for Paxton’s mistress, illegally used his power to help Nate Paul fight a lawsuit against a charitable foundation, prevent the foreclosure of several of his properties, and wage a war with the F.B.I., which was investigating him for fraud.
Some stories sound like a plot line from House of Cards: Paxton ordered an Attorney General Opinion drafted that would prohibit foreclosure sales because of COVID, even though they are held outdoors on courthouse steps. He wanted it drafted over a weekend (AG Opinions usually take six months to draft and approve) because Paul faced foreclosure on some of his properties the following Tuesday.
Some stories sound like an episode of Veep: Having ordered up a bogus AG Opinion, Paxton dragooned State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-BFE) to draft a bogus AG Opinion Request letter so the Opinion would appear hunky-dory.
Trust me, it gets worse. Eventually his senior staff complained about the sketchy / unethical / possibly illegal territory Paxton was drifting into. When he ignored them, some went and formally complained to the F.B.I. Paxton then fired a couple, demoted others, and ran still others out of the agency. They in turn filed the aforementioned whistleblower suit.
To me, this recitation begs the question: why Nate Paul? $25,000 is nothing to sneeze at, but according to Transparency USA Ken Paxton received much larger contributions from other individuals over the last decade. (Paul’s contribution is tied with many others for 200th largest on Paxton’s list.) The origins of the bromance between Paul and Paxton is one of the more interesting mysteries in all this.
(House Speaker Dade Phelan and Attorney General Ken Paxton)
What Happens Saturday?
Sometime on Saturday, the Speaker will call up the resolution, HR 2377, containing the Articles of Impeachment. There are 20 separate articles, or charges, against Paxton. Twenty. The clerk will read the entire resolution, concluding with the request that “Warren Kenneth Paxton be called upon to answer these articles of impeachment in the Texas Senate, and that in those proceedings the examinations, trials, and judgments be conducted and issued in accordance with law and justice.”
Then the members of the General Investigating Committee — five House members, chaired by Rep. Andrew Murr (R-Lum’s BBQ) — will lay out the particulars of the case against Paxton. This may take an hour or more. After the presentation is finished, members of the House will be invited to speak for or against the resolution. And then the House will vote. A majority vote is required to adopt the resolution; that’s 75 votes, as one seat (Slaton’s) in the 150-member House is currently vacant.
Are the votes there? On the one hand, I doubt Phelan would have let the impeachment process get this far if he did not think he had the votes. On the other hand, Paxton is fighting back. He’s criticized the committee staff that drafted the report as partisan Democrats, although the facts suggest otherwise. He’s also issued a statement decrying “liberal Speaker Dade Phelan” and “the RINOs in the Texas Legislature” as being “on the same side as Joe Biden, Alejandro Mayorkas, and Chuck Schumer,” leaving out only Nancy Pelsoi and Anthony Fauci in his roster of supervillains.
The big mystery in the House’s actions is: why bother? Paxton cuts a reptilian figure, it is true, but he is very popular with the GOP base which keeps re-electing him. His ethical and legal failings are well-known; in fact, Paxton’s statement essentially argues that Texas voters knew he was a crook and reelected him anyway, so the impeachment is “trying to overturn the results of a free and fair election,” which is rich irony for a guy who filed a lawsuit to overturn the results of free and fair elections in four states in 2020. Paxton’s secret, my friend Glenn Smith suggests, is that “he hates who his voters hate.”
Sources close to Phelan say that he was offended by the $3.3 million settlement price tag, which he viewed as hush money the state was paying to the whistleblowers to prevent Paxton’s wrongdoing from ever coming out in a courtroom.
On Wednesday afternoon, there was a dumpster fire – literally – at the AG’s headquarters in downtown Austin. It turned out to be unrelated – the AG was not destroying documents, in spite of suspicions to the contrary – but the incident reinforced the surreal nature of the entire situation.
After the House votes, the ball is in the Senate’s court. After a trial, 2/3rds of the members present (this may turn out to be important) must vote to convict. If they do, Paxton is permanently removed from office and barred for ever holding office again. Monday’s end to the session will complicate the timing, but the Senate will have to meet sometime in June or early July to conduct the trial. As this is an historic moment, I will frequently update you on developments as we head into the summer.
A final thought for now: impeachment is a political activity, not a judicial one. Although many legal formalities are observed, this is not like a civil or criminal case. The decision ultimately made will be a political one — which makes it even more interesting.
The Curious Case of the Intoxicated Speaker
The first shots fired in this battle occurred on Tuesday, when Paxton, growing more alarmed by the House’s investigation, suddenly called on House Speaker Dade Phelan to resign over a selectively-edited video that seemed to show Phelan presiding over the House while intoxicated – “POHWI” in legal terms. It turns out, though, that POHWI is not illegal, which led former Speaker Gib Lewis to sigh with relief.
MY TAKE: Phelan was probably exhausted, and probably not intoxicated. As anyone who pays attention to the House knows, during crunch times at the end of the session the presiding officer is obliged to utter various incantations necessary to the smooth transaction of the People’s Business, and to do so quickly and repeatedly for hours at a time. For example:
“Representative Neave Criado sends up an amendment. It’s acceptable to the author. Is there any objection to adoption of the amendment? The chair hears none. The amendment is adopted. The Chair recognizes Representative Gervin-Hawkins to close on the bill.”
Try saying that fifty times in a half hour.
Besides, there’s something comical about Ken Paxton setting himself up as an avatar of moral probity in Texas government.
Speaking of legislative speechifying … the late Molly Ivins wrote one of my favorite columns of all time about the ways in which Our Lord’s English gets, well, mangled in the legislative process, often deliberately. Well worth the read …
[1] Go here and click on the link for the 4-hour General Investigating Committee hearing to watch it.
I would second C.D. Bush’s comments about your article, Deece. Except I take exception to one remark: that comparison to cockroaches is an insult to cockroaches everywhere. Keep up the great work, Deece!
Good work, Deece. Back-of-the-postcard, Let there be Light. Now, I have stuck in my head a whole western town with shop fronts, all Paxton Town. I'm going to have to draw it. Lol, thanks.