2023-05-26 23:26:20
Influential Texas attorney general threatened with impeachment
The Attorney General of Texas is targeted by twenty counts, in particular for corruption and false declarations.
Ken Paxton in October 2022 at a Trumpist rally.
Getty Images via AFP
Influential Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a great enemy of Joe Biden in the courts, risks impeachment for corruption which will be the subject of a first vote in Congress on Saturday.
A parliamentary commission of inquiry unanimously adopted on Thursday twenty counts once morest the “attorney general” – equivalent to the Minister of Justice of Texas – for corruption, misuse of public funds, false declarations or even obstruction of justice.
The indictment relates to the pressure exerted by Ken Paxton on his teams in order to protect a friend and donor from legal proceedings. In exchange, the latter gave a job to a mistress of the Republican and financed work in his house, details the document. The text must be submitted on Saturday to the elected representatives of the House of Representatives of this vast southern American state, who should decide following four hours of debate.
Proche de Donald Trump
If passed by a simple majority of elected officials, Ken Paxton will be sent for trial in the Texas Senate. It will then be necessary that two thirds of the elected officials (among whom is his wife) agree to dismiss him. This 60-year-old ultraconservative, close to former President Donald Trump, is divided in his own camp and the outcome of these votes is very uncertain. Elected in 2014 to head the Texas judicial system, he has since been the subject of an indictment for financial fraud, which remains pending. This did not prevent him from being re-elected in 2018, then in 2022.
In this position, he filed fifty complaints once morest the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden, contesting among other things his migration, tax or environmental policy, he recalled to the press on Friday. On this occasion, he denounced an “illegal”, “shameful” and “unfair” procedure and called on his supporters to demonstrate on Saturday in front of the Texas Congress, in Austin, at the time of the vote. “The House stands ready to do something that Joe Biden has hoped for since taking office: sabotage my work,” he added.
In 2020, members of his team alerted to his abuse of power. After being dismissed, these “whistleblowers” filed a complaint for unfair dismissal. Earlier this year, Ken Paxton reached an agreement to end their lawsuits in exchange for $3.3 million. He asked Texas to pay the bill. This is what justified the opening of a parliamentary inquiry and which might hasten its downfall.
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