Texas Senate will on Tuesday begin an impeachment trial of suspended Attorney General (AG) Ken Paxton, a Republican strongman and ally of former US President Donald Trump, over years-long charges including corruption, lawbreaking and power abusing.The trial, no matter what the result could be, has already become a political spectacle drawing attention nationwide and is widely expected to shake Texas politics, especially among the more hard-right leadership of the state's Republican Party, reports Xinhua news agency.
Twelve Democrats and 19 Republicans in the state Senate, including Paxton's wife, Angela, will serve as the jury, considering opening and closing statements, witness testimony, cross examination and 20 articles of impeachment.
A vote by two-thirds of senators would be required to permanently remove Paxton from office.
Dan Patrick, also the president of the state Senate who will preside over the high court as judge, said in an interview .
Paxton, a Republican and star of the conservatives legal movement, was suspended from office in May when the GOP-controlled House voted 121-23 to impeach him on 20 articles ranging from bribery to abuse of public trust. Most of the articles deal with Paxton using his office to benefit a wealthy donor, Nate Paul, prompting eight of the attorney general's top deputies to report him to the FBI in 2020.
Three other charges date back to Paxton’s pending 2015 felony securities fraud case, including lying to state investigators. The Senate is not immediately taking up those charges and a fourth related to Paxton's ethics filings in the impeachment trial.
Ken Paxton has said he expects to be acquitted and that the charges are based on “hearsay and gossip, parroting long-disproven claims.”
Paxton agrees to settle the whistleblower lawsuit for $3.3 million of taxpayers’ money, which requires legislative approval. Justice Department officials in Washington take over the corruption investigation, removing the case from federal prosecutors in Texas.
Committee investigators also reviewed criminal charges that have been pending against Paxton since 2015, when a Collin County grand jury indicted him on two counts of felony securities fraud related to private business deals in 2011.
Paxton is also facing felony securities fraud charges and an FBI investigation for the same corruption allegations in his impeachment case.
An acquittal by the state Senate, especially if followed by a conviction in federal court, would seem to set Texas Republican leadership for major pain and embarrassment, Texas Monthly forecast, noting that whether that outcome would hurt party senators at the polls remains to be seen.
Paxton is only the third sitting official in Texas's nearly 200-year history to have been impeached, following Governor James Ferguson in 1917 and District Judge O.P. Carrillo in 1975.
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