Texas Senate Refuses To Dismiss Ken Paxton’s Impeachment Charges

The impeachment trial for suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) was given the proverbial green light Tuesday.

The Texas Senate moved forward with the trial by rejecting all two dozen of Paxton's legal team's pretrial motions Tuesday morning. Despite winning support from some conservative lawmakers, Paxton fell well short of securing a majority vote in the state legislature's upper house.

Among the 31 members of the state senate, the highest number of supporters Paxton's motions received was 10. Pretrial motions must receive a majority vote.

The trial marks the yearslong culmination of an investigation that could end the political aspirations of one of the most powerful Texas Republicans.

And a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump.

The Texas Tribune has more:

Setting the tone, the Senate denied Paxton's first two motions by votes of 24-6 and 22-8.

The first motion asked the Senate to throw out all of the articles of impeachment for lack of evidence. Twelve Republicans joined all Senate Democrats in the vote to essentially move forward with a trial.

A Texas House committee investigating Paxton announced in May that his alleged abuses of power warranted impeachment and may be criminal.

A bipartisan vote in the state house came following hours of testimony by former prosecutors tasked with investigating claims Paxton abused his authority by enriching a real estate developer, hiring a woman he had an affair with and retaliating against whistleblowers.

In February, Paxton settled a multi-million dollar lawsuit with four former aides who accused him of corruption and retaliation.

Paxton adamantly denies any legal wrongdoing.

His impeachment trial is expected to last two to three weeks. A two-thirds vote is required for a conviction, meaning all 12 Democrats and half of the 18 remaining Republicans must agree that the Texas attorney general abused his power. Paxton's wife, Sen. Angela Paxton, will not be allowed to cast a vote in her husband's trial.

However, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) ruled Paxton cannot be compelled to take the stand, a small but notable victory.

The Hill adds:

Patrick slapped down the case by Paxton opponents who argued that the attorney general could be forced to testify because his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination didn't apply in this particular trial, which cannot levy criminal penalties.

But the fact that Paxton will have to plead “guilty” or “not guilty” effectively makes it a criminal case, Patrick argued.

…

It was a small win for the attorney general, who had decisively failed to win Senate support for any of the motions his lawyers had filed that would have thrown out his impeachment trial in whole or in part.

That campaign to dismiss charges had exacerbated a growing divide within the state's ruling Republican coalition.

Six Republican senators supported all of Paxton's pretrial motions. A further five supported some of them. The remaining seven voted with all 12 Democrats on every motion.

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