So will Paxton get impeached?

[msquared]

Seems like the AG of TX is going to get impeached today.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-attorney-general-faces-impeachment-100909266.html

It must be bad if Republicans in TX are trying to get rid of a Republican AG.

[TheDrake]

His wife is in the Senate and has not recused herself. Trial date not set.

[TheDrake]

Trump is backing Mr. Paxton

Mr. Trump said in a statement on Truth Social, his social media platform, that moving to impeach Mr. Paxton was contrary to the will of voters who elected Mr. Paxton to a third term by a wide margin in November.

“Hopefully Republicans in the Texas House will agree that this is a very unfair process that should not be allowed to happen or proceed,” Mr. Trump wrote. “I will fight you if it does.”

A House panel led by Republicans has accused Mr. Paxton, also a Republican, of unethical behavior, including accepting favors from a real estate investor in exchange for access to and assistance from his office.

That seemed an oddly worded quote, so I decided to check the NYT to see if there was any shady business in how they extracted this from the full trump on trump social:

….I love Texas, won it twice in landslides, and watched as many other friends, including Ken Paxton, came along with me. 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!

Trump won Texas 52-46, not usually something described as a landslide. Abbott won 55-42, Paxton won 53-44. So he didn't exactly "pull them along with him". House Republicans did not agree that it was an unfair process that should not be allowed. I guess he's threatening to primary all the house members who voted to impeach, but will anyone want his help?

It is unclear how election interference ties in here, I guess because he sees impeachment as invalidating the will of the voters. He might have a point since three Republicans tried to defeat Paxton in the primary, and it turns out Texans prefer Shady Paxton.

[msquared]

That is most likely Paxton's only defense. There is a state statute, I think, that says if the public knows about the wrongdoing and elect him anyway, then they do not care.

There are two questions about that defense, as far as I know.First, what he did is against the State Constitution, and state statute can not over ride that. Second, did the people of the State of TX know all of the shady things he did.

Since Trump is not a law and order guy, of course he is against this. Paxton supported him, so any legal prosecution must be politcally motivated, even in a state as red as Texas. Must be all of those RINO's and Never Trumpers in the state. Trump also hates the precedent that an elected offical can be held responsible for wrongdoing while in office. How dare they? You don't see Putin or those guys in N Korea or China getting prosecuted for all of the crimes they committ? Why should Trump be any different? I mean why else would someone want to get elected if not to increase personal power?