The Texas House voted to suspend Paxton in June over 20 charges that include bribery, retaliation against whistleblowers, and obstruction of justice, according to The Texas Tribune.
The state Senate’s trial begins Sept. 5.
“As far as structure goes, it’s even more of a sham than impeachment trials of Donald Trump,” Texas GOP head Matt Rinaldi said on American Family Radio Thursday. “At least they heard testimony and evidence. In this one, the House hired a few Democrat prosecutors to produce a report that they then plopped in front of the body, debated for two hours, then just voted to impeach him based on that alone.”
Rinaldi told show host Jenna Ellis that Paxton’s impeachment is a Democrat-driven process in response to lawsuits he filed in 2020 challenging the results of the presidential election.
At the time Paxton sued battleground states Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin saying the four states “exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to justify ignoring federal and state election laws and unlawfully enacted last-minute changes” which served to skew the results.
“(Democrats) have been driving this for years,” Rinaldi said. “It’s part of a pattern of not only the weaponization of politics but also the criminalization of the legal profession and making plausible legal arguments in court for your clients.”
Legal problems have followed Texas’ top attorney for years. Paxton has settled some litigation while more is ongoing.
The legal issues haven’t cost him with voters, however, who elected him to a third four-year term last year, but he has made political enemies along the way.
According to The Texas Tribune, Paxton asked state budget writers to spend public money to assist with a $3.3 million settlement that would end a lawsuit filed by former staffers who accused him of on-the-job retaliation.
Apparently, that revelation was a tipping point in the Texas House. Its general investigating committee launched a secret probe and in May detailed allegations of years of misconduct and questionable behavior.
While avoiding the accusations themselves, Rinaldi said impeachment is outside the boundaries of the process established by the Texas Constitution because of when 19 of the 20 accusations occurred.
In Paxton’s case, the GOP leader says, 19 charges took place “between two and eight years ago.”
“It’s legitimate when there are impeachable offenses that were committed during the office holder’s term that the legislature feels justified in ending his term in office,” Rinaldi said.
Those allegations were known by the public when Paxton was re-elected last year, Rinaldi pointed out, but he alleges state lawmakers were plotting impeachment because "their guy" failed to win the GOP primary.
Paxton was challenged in the primary by George P. Bush, a member of the Bush political family. The challenger got trounced by the incumbent 68%-32%.
"That’s what's happening here," Rinaldi insisted. "The Texas law doesn't allow him to be impeached for anything that happened prior to that election. That’s what his lawyers are currently arguing."
Paxton’s defense has made a motion to dismiss 19 of the 20 charges. The senate’s first order of business will be to consider the motion.
The lone charge not contested by Paxton’s team is the charge dealing with his budget request for lawsuit settlement expenses. It’s the only charge that has come in Paxton’s current term in office.
Rinaldi calls that charge bogus.
“This is an allegation that it was an impeachable offense to ask for $3 million from the legislature to settle a whistleblower lawsuit. So, it was an impeachable offense to ask for money from the legislature openly and transparently, that he had in his budget anyway, and could have spent without asking,” Rinaldi said.
In a strictly financial sense, the Texas House will spend more money to try Paxton than what he requested.
“I guarantee you with the amount of lawyers they hired, the House impeachment managers are going to spend over $3 million on this impeachment easy,” Rinaldi said.
Rinaldi blames 'liberal' Republicans
Rinaldi told American Family Radio in May the Paxton impeachment is possible due in part to odd Texas traditions of governance in which Republicans, with a majority in the state's House of Representatives, voluntarily appoint opposition members to key positions.
Republicans currently hold 86 of the 150 seats in the House, but 40% percent of committee chairmanships were held by Democrats last session, Rinaldi noted.
"We tried to alert everybody in the first week of the session to the fact that in today's political climate we can no longer give Democrats power like we have in the Texas House traditionally," Rinaldi said. "Texas is the only state in the country, which I'm aware of, where Republicans control a chamber and then voluntarily appoint Democrats to positions of power."
With those appointments, of course, come leadership positions and concessions gained for the minority party.
"And one of the concessions this session, obviously, was to offer up the head of the Republican Attorney General to Democrats," Rinaldi argues.
Much of the push to remove Paxton, according to the state GOP head, can be linked to Rep. Dade Phelan (R) from Texas' 21st district from Beaumont in the southeast corner of the state. Phelan was elected House Speaker by a 145-3 vote in January.
The impeachment is advancing with the help of some Republicans, however.
“There are liberal Republicans that are enabling Democrats that are participating in this, which is particularly frustrating because we're all under attack," Rinaldi argued. "Democrats want to arrest us and put us in jail for our political beliefs, and then you have Republicans coming and joining them in certain instances. Democrats don't do that."
