a Texas House committee voted unanimously
to adopt articles of impeachmenf
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxt.
The chair moves that the commite
adopts the articles of impeachmt
against Warren Kenneth Paxton,
Attorney General of the State of Texas.
This comes after the House Genel
Investigating Committee listeneo
three hours of testimony yestery
about years of alleged miscondut
by the Texas Attorney General.
Maybe's Natalie. Her dad was ine
room when the committee took the vote.
She joins us now live from the
Capitol with the latest Natalie.
Brian Ashley It was just in them
next to us where those articlesf
impeachment were just introduce.
But before the committee came back out to
make that announcement of that decision,
tensions were already high with a staff
member from the office of Attory
General Kent Paxton arriving he,
seemingly interrupting the committee's
meeting to say that he wanted to
testify as a resource witness,
but was of course not allowed to
because it was a special meetin.
Now this is kind of how it went down.
So when we were in the room he.
Arrived and said that he wantedo
again serve as a resource witne.
We learned that his name is Chrs
Hilton and he serves as the Chif
Litigation Division Chief for te
office of Attorney General Ken Paxton.
He interrupted that meeting,
insisted he testify as a resource witness.
He claimed that the investigatig
committee never contacted the
Office of Attorney General.
And just as a quick recap, Mr.
Paxton is being investigated for a list of
allegations including false statements,
misuse of funds and misuse of
power now in that committee roo.
Hilton claimed the testimony hed
yesterday by investigators lookg
into those allegations against
Paxton was full of falsehoods.
He called this an illegal investigation
and questioned why impeachment.
Could possibly be on the table For Mr.
Paxton.
Any proposed impeachment
can only be about conduct.
Since the most recent election,
the voters have spoken.
They want Ken Paxton
now. The video you see right now
is seemingly going after Mr.
Hilton. He came to testify,
but quickly said that he could
no longer answer our questions.
You know he did.
Before going walking away from ,
he reiterated how he believed ts
was an illegal investigation,
but quickly said he could
no longer speak with us.
He was asked if he was here
at the direction of Mr.
Paxton or if he came on his own
accord and he would not answer.
He was also also asked about Mr.
Paxton's whereabouts and
refused to answer that question.
And again when he began to walk away,
he said that he could no
longer speak with us.
But we asked why he could no
longer answer our questions if
he was here to initially testif,
but of course was not.
Allowed to,
He instead refused any further
interaction with reporters.
Now As for what comes next,
now that Texas House of Representatives
will be briefed on the investign
and its findings and then they
will seemingly take a vote,
we will have a breakdown of what
comes next later and keep you
updated right here on cave you.
But for now, I'll send it back to you,
Brian and Ashley.
All right. Thank you, Natalie.
We are now joined by Scott Brad,
editor of the Quorum Report.
Scott, you've been covering Texs
politics for a mighty long time.
Now let's talk about the
significance of this.
First and foremost
historic, the last time that any
office holder in Texas was imped
by the legislature was a judge who was
impeached to judge from South T.
And that was back in the 70s.
And actually it's interesting that right now.
The articles of impeachment that have been
drawn up against Attorney General Paxton,
that the template for that is the document
that was used back in the 70s to impeach
that judge since this last time that it
happened And for a statewide official
to be impeached in Texas is a huge deal.
I mean here you have someone who has been
elected in general elections multiple times.
Voters have basically sort
of looked the other way,
most of the majority have.
With these allegations against Paxton,
he's been able to, you know,
secure reelection in primaries
and general elections.
But now you have Republicans policing
one of their own and saying this
guy is corrupt and he needs to .
Scott,
we've seen impeachment proceedis
at the federal level the last ce
of years, more recently than th.
Does this process work similar to where
it works at the federal level? y
similar, yeah. And that, you kn,
even those veterans of the Texas
capital have to break out the te
original owners manual for the state,
the Texas Constitution and
and go through it right now.
They're doing that to check up on that
process that Natalie was mentioning it,
mentioning in her report that yu
know what's going to play out n,
the full house will receive
the articles of impeachment.
It's my understanding they may .
As soon as Saturday,
I don't think it's going to happen tomorrow,
but as soon as Saturday we may a
full vote of the House to impeach Paxton.
And that's just a simple majoriy
in the House, 76 votes.
And then it would be sent
to the Texas Senate,
which could remove him from
office if 2/3 of Senators.
Agreed to do that, Of course.
Here you have a Republican who is accused
of multiple crimes over many ye.
And so you may have some Republs
who I don't want to go along with that,
right, because of the partisan politics.
But the fact is that they would only need,
according to the math,
they would only need eight
Republican senators,
I believe to to join with all te
Democrats to remove Paxton from office.
I was told,
and there was some reporting tos
effect as well and some other places that
Paxton has basically told his s.
The attorney general's office,
he fully expects to be impeached
by the House.
And then we see what happens whn
it moves to the upper chamber.
And let's talk about what happens when
it moves to the upper chamber because
it's a bit complicated given tht
his wife is a senator. Right, S.
Right. And you know,
I've been asked that a lot over
the last few days of that last 2
hours or so people say what does
Angela passed and his his wife,
who as you mentioned as a senatr
from North Texas, what does she?
Is there a way for her to recuse
herself in the Texas Constituti?
It says that all senators need to sit
for this and sit through what will look
like and will be a trial in the Senate.
But is there a way for her to
simply not vote or vote present?
That would of course change theh
a little bit on on what it would take
to remove the attorney General o
is in some serious hot water he.
Scott, we're almost to
the end of this session.
You said the vote for the House
could happen on Saturday.
The session is almost over.
What does that mean?
Does that mean a special sessior
this specific reason for the Se?
Interesting, there would not hao
be a special session for this purpose.
The type of the Texas Constitution does
allow for the House to convene itself.
The governor doesn't have to do that.
Let's say that they don't vote s
weekend and they wait until lat.
The Speaker of the House could convene
the House just to consider artis
of impeachment against Paxton oy
office holder they were investigating.
And then the Senate would have
to follow suit.
That's also in the Constitution.
So it this doesn't really have
anything to do with whether
there's a special session or no.
This is a very special circumst.
Scott Braddock with the Quorum Report.
We thank you so much for takinge
time out to talk with us today. Scott,
my pleasure. Thank you, Ash.