Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

UnitedHealth grew very big. Now, some lawmakers want to chop it down.

The new face of flooding

How celebrity tequilas are changing the very nature of tequila

Biden’s internet-for-all program needs Musk’s help

Microsoft’s “responsible AI” chief worries about the open web

How the push to ban TikTok spurred a new Washington influence machine

Chance to move over .500 slips away as Nats lose to reigning champs

T.J. Oshie, the heart of the Caps, wants to keep playing. He’s not sure if he can.

Nationals sweep away the Marlins to get back to .500

The delusions behind Biden’s plan for Middle East peace 

Middle East conflict live updates: Blinken meets Netanyahu in Jerusalem; U.S. presses Israel on Gaza aid

Is Bougainville the next battleground between China and the U.S.?

Man arrested at Yellowstone for allegedly kicking bison while drunk

Southwest passengers now get a $75 voucher for big flight disruptions

The Rick Steves guide to life

Baby orca escapes lagoon for open seas

Meet Emo, the AI robot that can predict your smile

Speaker Johnson: deploy National Guard to Columbia

Biden is aiming increasingly personal and sarcastic jabs at Trump

Views of the campus protests are too broad — and too narrow

Attorney general moves to reclassify marijuana as lower-risk drug

A murder plot that cannot be ignored: India must come clean at last

How to confront antisemitism, deal with protests — and respect free speech

Is student loan debt an emergency? Take our quiz.

I coach my son’s sports team. Why is he so disrespectful during practice?

Miss Manners: How to decline donation requests at checkout

Ask Amy: My friends took my advice, but they’re doing it wrong

Cat climbed into Amazon return box, found alive 630 miles away

I learned to heal my sadness by cradling dying chickens 

Brave Little Hunter is free: Baby orca escapes lagoon for open seas

Use these 6 points to say no to a college you and your kid can’t afford

How this new rule protects retirement savers from costly advice

Borrowers, don’t miss this important student loan forgiveness deadline

 Donald Trump Speaks During A Campaign Rally In Green Bay Wisconsin

Eric Gay

The Texas House impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday over allegations of bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of public trust, a stunning rebuke of the conservative firebrand that at least temporarily forces him from office pending a state Senate trial that could lead to his permanent ouster.

Paxton has been a fierce defender of former president Donald Trump and a defiant opponent of the Biden administration, but his impeachment came at the hands of fellow Texas Republicans, who have long controlled all three branches of state government.

Before Saturday’s vote, only two officials in Texas’s nearly 200-year history had been impeached, both for misuse of public funds: A state district judge in 1975 and the governor in 1917.

Of 146 House members present, 121 voted to impeach Paxton — more than the majority required, including all but one Democrat and 60 Republicans — 23 voted no (all Republicans), and two were present but did not vote. The vote came after four hours of debate about the legitimacy of the process and the 20 articles of impeachment.

In statements <a href="https://twitter.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/1662578370477948928" target=_blank>tweeted after the vote</a>, Paxton accused House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) and the “corrupt politicians he controls” of colluding with Democrats, the Biden administration, “the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/abortion/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">abortion</a> industry, anti-gun zealots and woke corporations.” Phelan was among those voting to impeach.

“They disregarded the law, ignored the facts and demonstrated contempt for Texas voters,” Paxton said. “I look forward to a quick resolution in the Texas Senate, where I have full confidence the process will be fair and just.”

Who is Ken Paxton and why was he impeached?

Many of the allegations that form the basis of the articles of impeachment surfaced in 2020, when Paxton’s top aides accused him of abuse of office to benefit a wealthy donor. They reported their concerns to the F.B.I., which began an investigation, although no charges were filed. Four of the aides were fired and filed suit alleging retaliation.

In February, they reached a $3.3 million settlement — contingent on the state paying. Phelan balked at Paxton’s request for the payment from the annual budget, triggering a bipartisan House committee’s impeachment investigation. Earlier this week, the Republican-led committee recommended Paxton’s impeachment for “grave offenses.”

“But for Paxton’s own request for a taxpayer-funded settlement over his wrongful conduct, Paxton would not be facing impeachment,” the committee said in a memo released by Phelan’s office Friday.

With Paxton’s impeachment, Gov. Greg Abbott, a fellow Republican who has worked closely with the attorney general, could  appoint a temporary replacement. It was not clear Saturday if that would occur nor when Paxton’s Senate trial would start. In the interim, by law, Paxton’s job will be filled by his chief deputy, First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster, according to a memo Webster sent to staff Saturday that his office released to The Post. In the memo, Webster defended his boss, noting “Texas has had no better elected official than Ken Paxton defending citizens’ rights, fighting for justice, and preserving freedom.”

By law, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Paxton ally, will schedule and preside over the trial but not vote; Texas’s legislative session ends Monday and the trial could interrupt those final proceedings or be scheduled later. During the trial, the Senate can request documents, witnesses and testimony, meet privately for deliberations and exercise “any other powers necessary,” according to state law.

Paxton’s permanent removal would require a two-thirds vote by the Senate’s 19 Republicans and dozen Democrats. Paxton’s wife, Angela, is a Republican senator entitled to vote. So is Sen. Bryan Hughes (R), a Patrick lieutenant mentioned in the House articles of impeachment as having aided Paxton. Patrick has not said how he plans to handle those potential conflicts of interest. Both he and Abbott have remained conspicuously silent during Paxton’s impeachment investigation.

“Patrick is much more ideologically and politically aligned with Paxton than he is with the Speaker of the House,” said James Henson, who heads the Texas Politics Project at University of Texas at Austin. But the impeachment puts Patrick in an awkward position given “the strength of the case against Paxton,” he said.

Matt Mackowiak, chair of the Republican Party in Travis County, which includes Austin, said it was unlikely that enough Republican senators would vote against Paxton unless Patrick called for it.

“I don’t expect it. Ideologically they’re very aligned. And you’ve started to see Trumpworld weigh in,” he said, noting that Donald Trump Jr., former White House aide Stephen Miller and conservative activist Charlie Kirk had tweeted support for Paxton in recent days.

Shortly before debate began, former president Trump weighed in, criticizing Phelan and threatening to “fight” House Republicans who failed to support Paxton. “It is the Radical Left Democrats, RINOS, and Criminals that never stop,” Trump said on his social media platform. “ELECTION INTERFERENCE! Free Ken Paxton, let them wait for the next election!” Paxton retweeted Trump’s statement.

After the vote, Trump posted video Paxton has cited as evidence Phelan was drunk when he presided over the legislature last week, which Phelan’s office has dismissed as an effort by Paxton to “save face.”

“So this is the RINO who is responsible for the impeachment of a just re-elected Attorney General of Texas who has done an outstanding job? What is our Country coming to?” Trump wrote.

During the debate leading up to the vote, Paxton’s critics spelled out the case against him.

“The evidence is substantial. It is alarming and unnerving,” said Rep. Andrew Murr (R), who chaired the committee that recommended Paxton’s impeachment.

Rep. Charlie Geren (R), a longtime legislator who served on the committee, said members acted “beyond partisan affiliation in order to take the necessary steps to protect the institution that is our state government.” He noted that several colleagues had “received telephone calls from Gen. Paxton personally threatening them with political consequences in their next election.”

Afterward, a Democrat colleague <a href="https://twitter.com/EddieMoralesJr/status/1662550683256496131" target=_blank>tweeted</a> a proposal to amend the impeachment articles against Paxton to include intimidation of House members and Senate jury tampering.

“No one person should be above the law, least not the top law enforcement official of the state of Texas,” said Rep. David Spiller (R), a lawyer who also served on the committee. “We each took an oath of office. Attorney General Paxton took an oath of office. He violated that oath. He put the interests of himself above the laws of the state of Texas.”

Paxton’s defenders questioned the legitimacy, speed and secrecy of the impeachment investigation. Rep. Brian Harrison (R) called the impeachment a “sham railroading of a political enemy.” One Democrat, Rep. Harold Dutton, did not vote on impeachment because he said the investigation was “abbreviated to the point it encroaches on due process.”

“This process is indefensible,” said Rep. John Smithee (R), a veteran legislator and lawyer, noting that Paxton was not allowed to defend himself before the committee or to cross examine witnesses. He called the findings “hearsay.”

By contrast, Smithee and other critics noted that the last impeachment in 1975 was a “slow and deliberative process” where the accused attended, House members were allowed to review evidence and to question dozens of witnesses with public hearings over the course of months.

“What you’re being asked to do today is to impeach without evidence. It is all rumor, it is all innuendo, it is all speculation,” said Smithee, who voted no, likening Paxton’s impeachment to “a mob out for a lynching.” At that, the packed gallery erupted in applause, despite warnings from the speaker.

Paxton, 60, established himself as a GOP legal warrior in Texas, serving for a decade in the House and two years in the Senate before he succeeded Abbott as attorney general in 2015.

“Ken has been much more closely aligned with the grass roots, activist wing of the party. He’s been willing to be more bold, certainly more of a risk taker” than Abbott, Mackowiak said.

Across Texas, Republicans and observers were struck by the speed at which the previously powerful official suffered a dire threat to his career.

“It’s not something we’ve seen at this level in a century,” Henson said. “It has big historical implications and it’s going to require people to look at procedures that have not been used in a long time … People had begun to take it for granted that Paxton was not going to pay any permanent cost for these accumulating legal problems.”

It was as attorney general that Paxton became a national conservative hero by championing Trump and his policies in court. Paxton led a multistate legal challenge to Biden’s election. He spoke at a Trump rally in Washington on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/january-6-capitol-riot/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Jan. 6</a>, shortly before the insurrection.

“Ken has been the strongest conservative AG in the country. Bar none,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted Saturday, saying the courts should address his alleged wrongdoing. “No attorney general has battled the abuses of the Biden admin more ferociously — and more effectively.”

Paxton fought the Biden administration on multiple fronts, particularly immigration. His legal challenges forced the administration to reinstate a Trump-era policy that required migrants to remain in Mexico while awaiting immigration hearings. Paxton led a coalition of Republican-led states that stalled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program designed to protect migrant children from deportation.

He championed abortion restrictions, and challenged gun regulations and the Affordable Care Act. Last year, Paxton <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/14/texas-transgender-data-paxton/" target=_blank>helped the governor</a> investigate families of transgender children for child abuse. More recently, he investigated clinics in Austin and Houston for treating transgender youths.

“Paxton’s been the leading edge for the Republican attorney general model, challenging virtually every action by the Democrat president and, when you had a Republican president, running defense for Trump,” said Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston, who has filed briefs in support of some of Paxton’s cases.

Blackman said Paxton might try to get the courts involved to block his impeachment, potentially seeking a restraining order.

“When you’re about to be impeached, you use any legal reasoning you can think of,” Blackman said.

In arguing against impeachment, Paxton and his allies have insisted that Texas law exempts acts committed before officials were elected — in his case, acts before last November. He won reelection with more than 53 percent of the vote after swamping former Texas land commissioner George P. Bush, the nephew and grandson of former presidents, in the Republican primary.

Paxton’s impeachment by the House was celebrated by Texas Democrats, immigrant and LGBTQ advocacy groups.

“It was a pretty damning vote for him,” Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the state Democratic Party, said in an interview. “He tried to put some real serious pressure on Texas Republicans. I think that backfired on him. I think a lot of Republicans were pretty resentful and said they wouldn’t be intimidated by those kind of tactics. It’s a victory for Texas.”

2018 APME International Perspective

2015 Overseas Press Club

2013 DART Award

2012 Livingston Finalist

Harvard College, BA Social Studies, 1999

Molly Hennessy-Fiske joined The Post in 2022 as a national reporter based in Texas covering breaking news and red states.

Molly Hennessy-Fiske

washpost

Texas House impeaches Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton

the-washington-post

Texas Attorney General

Climate

Education

Health

Innovations

Investigations

National Security

Obituaries

Science

National

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/national&limit=20

The Washington Post's national news coverage. Get the latest national news, featuring national security, science and the courts. Read breaking national news headlines from across the U.S.