Texas House committee recommends impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A Texas House committee voted Thursday afternoon to adopt articles of impeachment against Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The five-member panel of the House Committee on General Investigating agreed unanimously to move forward with impeaching Paxton. Their decision came one day AFTER they heard from a team of lawyers specializing in public corruption lay out extensive details about alleged misconduct by the three-term Republican official.

The investigators said they began looking into Paxton in March after a proposal emerged to use state funds to pay $3.3 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed by four former employees who accused Paxton of wrongdoing. They ultimately said the evidence they collected these past few months would support at least a dozen criminal charges against Paxton, including securities fraud, dereliction of duty and retaliating against employees who raised ethical concerns.

In a last-second effort to stop the committee's decision Thursday, a representative from the attorney general's office appeared to defend Paxton. His office argued the committee has not coordinated with his office, adding that the allegations do not meet the threshold for impeachment.

Chris Hilton, the chief of the general litigation division at the Office of the Attorney General, told reporters, "The committee is clearly not concerned with the truth, but the voters do care about the truth. These accusations against General Paxton have been presented against him for years. He defeated 3 primary challengers last year, he won by 10 points in the general election. There's nothing new that anyone heard yesterday."

However, both Democratic and Republican members of the Texas House alike told KXAN Thursday they're planning to move forward.

"Everything about the Attorney General is impropriety," Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, said, "and moving forward, the state of Texas deserves better. He should have resigned years ago."

Canales said he believes the House has more than enough votes to impeach Paxton, which requires just a simple majority.

If Paxton is impeached, the Senate will act as jury to decide whether to convict Paxton and remove him from office.

This is developing news, so KXAN will update this story with more updates when they become available.