Washington (EFE)
Paxton, close to the figure of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), has been under investigation by the FBI for several years for allegedly using his office to help a donor and is accused of fraud, a crime for which he has not yet been tried. .
The Republican-led House
The state House of Representatives, led by the Republican Party itself, began this afternoon the debate to decide whether to submit Paxton to impeachment and, therefore, suspend him from office.
By 121 votes in favor and only 23 against, the majority of the House voted in favor of beginning a political trial against the prosecutor, who has been temporarily suspended from his duties, as required by state law.
The vote required only a simple majority in the House, which is made up of 85 Republican representatives and 64 Democrats. After her the decision moves to the Senate of Texas.
Paxton has been one of the most prominent legal combatants of the Republican Party and in 2020 was one of those who asked the United States Supreme Court to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the elections against Trump.
Through his Truth Social social network, the former president threatened Republicans who support the impeachment process this Saturday.
“Hopefully the Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives agree that this is a highly unfair process that should not be allowed to happen or continue,” Trump wrote before the vote, saying he will fight Paxton.
Paxton responds
After the result of the vote was known, Paxton published a statement on social networks in which he described what happened as an “ugly spectacle” and a “shocking impeachment plot”, which “was never intended to be fair or equitable”. .
“It was a politically motivated farce from the beginning,” he said.
Last Thursday a committee of the Texas House of Representatives recommended impeachment proceedings against Paxton, after years of scandals and accusations of corruption.
With a unanimous vote, members of the Texas House General Investigation Committee, made up of Republicans, took the unprecedented step, which could end with the removal of the attorney general, who was reelected last November for his third term.
Known in English as impeachment, impeachment is a process by which the integrity or capacity of someone holding public office is questioned.
Only two officials in Texas’ nearly 200-year history have been impeached, a governor in 1917 and a district judge in 1976.