We begin with
breaking news. Just moments ago,
the House voted to impeach
Attorney General Ken Paxton.
121 House members voted in
favor of the resolution,
well over the simple majority threshold they
needed to reach in order to impeach him.
I'm Darren Nisha Heron.
Tony Ploheski is here with me.
Here's a live look at the House
floor where that vote just happ.
This investigation stems from
Paxton's request for taxpayer
money to pay $3.3 million to see
a lawsuit between Paxton and
whistleblowers within his offic.
Let's bring in senior reporter y
Ploheski to break all of this dn
and what this recent vote means.
Dear Nisha, this is a historic day in Texas.
This vote happening got wrote
it down at 456 this afternoon.
Again, 121 votes in support
of impeachment, 23 against.
Of course, all afternoon we head
impassioned testimony from both
sides of the political aisle,
both supporters of Ken Paxton
and those determining that he
does need to be impeached. Agai,
this is the third time in Texas history,
the first time in nearly 50
years that this has happened.
So indeed, Daronisha,
A historic day for the state,
Definitely historic.
Now let's go ahead and talk about the
articles of impeachment and whys
in this situation in the 1st pl.
And if we can walk you
through those right now,
we actually have a list of them.
There were 20 different articles
of impeachment and you can see e
charges there on your screen. Some of.
Of them were charged more than .
This all goes back to allegations that
were levied against Ken Paxton e
years ago nearly by his internal staff.
His high-ranking top lieutenants took
information to the FBI that they
believe he was engaging in a nur
of different criminal offenses,
Aronisia including bribery.
And abusing his office.
That triggered not only an
investigation by the Department
of Justice that is still ongoin,
but it also triggered A lawsuit brought
by 4 whistleblowers within his office.
Over the past several years we
have seen that lawsuit winding
its way through the court syste,
but what we now know triggered s
investigation within the House
was the proposed a proposed.
$3.2 million settlement that Pan
reached with those whistleblowe.
And earlier this year we know tt
he came forward asking the state
lawmakers to approve using taxpr
money for that $3.3 million settlement.
Lawmakers took a look at it and said,
well,
we can't make this determination
without fully investigating what
led to the circumstances that ld
to this proposed settlement.
So that is what led us to where we are today,
right. And within those article,
there are a lot of other
reasons why we're in.
Well, we're talking about this today,
and some of it has to do with
allegations of a mistress.
And we know that this will
have to go to the Senate
where his wife is a member.
Yeah, that's right.
The next steps is that
immediately as of today,
and because of this vote,
Ken Paxton is suspended from
holding the office of the State.
Top attorney This now must go to
state senators and coming days e
is no determination yet for when
the Senate may take up this iss.
But we know that the Senate wilw
have a trial or they're expected
to have a trial in the Senate.
And it is the Senate who will
determine whether or not this
suspension of Ken Paxton from
his office becomes permanent.