Following an explosive week leading up to Memorial Day, the House voted to impeach Paxton by an overwhelming 121-23 following a number of allegations regarding corruption and a $3.3-million settlement his office negotiated with whistleblowers.
With Texas being a Republican-run state, such a margin meant that a large and perhaps surprising number of conservative lawmakers who had long been supportive of Paxton chose to oppose the AG, who was reelected for a third time in November 2022. Ultra-conservative state reps from North Texas such as Frisco’s Jared Patterson, Lewisville’s Kronda Thimesch and Plano’s Jeff Leach were among the House Republicans who voted to send Paxton to a September Senate trial. This is the first time a Texas AG has ever been impeached.
Even in the midst of the Fourth of July holiday week, Paxton’s name couldn’t stay out of the news. On July 3, Paxton’s defense attorney, the controversial, high-profile Houston trial lawyer Tony Buzbee, said that Paxton, a McKinney resident, would not testify during his Senate trial.
“We will not bow to their evil, illegal, and unprecedented weaponization of state power in the Senate chamber,” Buzbee said in a statement, according to the Texas Tribune. The article noted that Paxton can still be forced to testify by the Senate; however, that effort would likely be met with resistance.
Paxton isn't the only one who will (probably) not be speaking once Sept. 5 rolls around. Thanks to a new set of rules the Senate adopted, state Sen. Angela Paxton, the suspended AG’s wife, will be barred from voting in the impeachment trial after she had announced she would not recuse herself from the proceedings.
“Now therefore be it resolved that the Dallas County Republican Party CONDEMNS the process by which the House of Representatives impeached General Paxton ..." – Dallas County Republican Party
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Earlier this week, it was reported that some additional Paxton financial dealings have received scrutiny by the House investigators. According to The Dallas Morning News, “Paxton was an investor in WatchGuard Video when the Collin County company secured a contract in 2006 with the state to provide dash cameras to police vehicles,” the report stated. “The company has reported more than $33 million in sales to state and local agencies since 2014, according [to] data from the state Department of Information Resources.”
The Morning News report goes on to state that investigators are looking into whether Paxton helped the company gain the contract and if he personally benefited from WatchGuard winning the contract.
Not all of Paxton’s GOP neighbors in North Texas are eager to see him leave, though. On Tuesday night, the Dallas County Republican Party organization released a resolution condemning the impeachment. Paxton tweeted out the resolution with a note, saying "Thank you, @DallasGOP." In what has become a common chorus among Paxton’s supporters, the issue is not that the acts of which he’s been accused are false, but that the process leading to the impeachment was somehow flawed.
The resolution outlines three points the Dallas County GOP believes indicate that Paxton was denied due process by the House General Investigative Committee and the House of Representatives before pounding the “Now therefore be it resolved” hammer that is the hallmark of any proper resolution, of course.
Thank you, @DallasGOP https://t.co/HiAp8AKNGe
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) July 12, 2023
“Now therefore be it resolved that the Dallas County Republican Party CONDEMNS the process by which the House of Representatives impeached General Paxton as unprecedented and an offense to Due Process and the Rule of Law and hereby IMPLORES Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and members of the Texas Senate to uphold Due Process, fairness, precedent and the Rule of Law by immediately returning the impeachment articles back to the House of Representatives,” the statement reads in part.
Texas Rep. Venton Jones, a Democrat from Dallas County, doesn't agree that Paxton has been treated unfairly.
"We must hold everyone accountable regardless of their elected position or title," he said in a statement provided to the Observer. "There is clear and convincing evidence that Ken Paxton violated several laws and abused his power as Attorney General. It is unfortunate that the Dallas County Republican Party is construing this constitutional process as a partisan event when we are simply holding a corrupt elected official accountable for his actions."
The Dallas County resolution comes a few weeks after the Republican Party of Texas blasted the impeachment. For now, Paxton and his defense team seem happy to continue doing what Paxton has long been successful at: playing legal games in the media.
On Wednesday, Morning News reporter Lauren McGaughy tweeted that Buzbee has accused the “House impeachment managers of refusing to turn over important info to his team and ask the [Lt.] guv to step in to force them,” she writes before closing with, “He doesn’t say explicitly what info they’re allegedly withholding.”
