The Texas Senate is set to gavel in today for the impeachment trial of state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a formal airing of corruption allegations that could lead Republican lawmakers to oust one of their own as lead lawyer for America's largest red state.
In May, the state House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impeach Paxton on articles including bribery and abuse of public trust. It was a sudden rebuke by the GOP-controlled chamber of a star of the conservative legal movement who has weathered years of scandal and alleged crimes.
Paxton is only the third sitting official in Texas’ nearly 200-year history to be impeached. The House vote suspended the 60-year-old from the office he used in 2020 to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral defeat of Donald Trump.
