Former President Donald Trump took to social media on Saturday to condemn the impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, his close political ally.
The former president took specific aim at Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R), who led the charge to successfully impeach Paxton, sharing a video on his Truth Social platform of Phelan stumbling with his words on the state House floor earlier this week. At the time, Paxton accused Phelan of being drunk while conducting the legislature, and insisted he resign.
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“So this is the RINO who is responsible for the Impeachment of a just re-Elected Attorney General of Texas who has done an outstanding job?” Trump captioned the video of Phelan in his Truth Social post. “What is our Country coming to?”
The Texas state House voted to impeach the GOP state attorney general by a vote of 121-23 on Saturday, which sets up the possibility that he could be permanently removed from office if the state Senate votes the same way. He’ll be temporarily removed from his post until the Senate trial concludes.
Paxton, a staunch ally of of the former president, responded to the news of the House vote with a lengthy statement condemning the effort to remove him as unlawful and politically motivated.
“The ugly spectacle in the Texas House today confirmed the outrageous impeachment plot against me was never meant to be fair or just. It was a politically motivated sham from the beginning,” Paxton said. “My office made every effort to present evidence, testimony, and irrefutable facts that would have disproven the countless false statements and outright lies advanced by Speaker Dade Phelan and the Murr-Johnson panel he appointed.”
“Unfortunately, they refused to consider anything that would interfere with their desired result,” he continued. “They disregarded the law, ignored the facts, and demonstrated contempt for Texas voters.”
Prior to the vote, Paxton had also referred to Phelan as a “liberal” that was seeking to “disenfranchise Texas voters and sabotage my work as Attorney General.”
A Republican led panel in the state House initially approved the 20 impeachment articles against Paxton earlier this week. Investigators had accused Paxton of a number of misdoings, among them being an alleged attempt to hide an affair, misusing his office to help a donor, and skirting protocols as he created a culture of fear and retaliation in his office.
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The Texas AG has faced years of corruption accusations — including being indicted in 2015 on felony security fraud charges that he still has yet to beat. He’s largely survived those scandals up to now, during which time he’s established himself as a prominent conservative legal warrior and a known foe of the Biden administration.
He said in his statement that while he was displeased with the state House’s handling of his impeachment proceedings, he had “full confidence” that the “process will be fair and just” in the Senate. It is not yet clear if the state Senate will even hold a trial, as there is nowhere near the necessary two-thirds support to convict him in that chamber.
