© Reuters. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton left a news conference after the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in President Joe Biden’s bid to overturn Trump’s immigration policy that forced immigrants to stay in Mexico pending US hearings.
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Written by Rich McKay
(Reuters) – The Texas Senate was set to begin deliberations on Sunday to permanently remove from office Attorney General Ken Paxton, the conservative troublemaker and ally of former President Donald Trump, who was impeached by the House of Representatives last weekend over allegations of abuse by fellow Republicans. . from the office.
After hours of debate on Saturday, the House of Representatives voted 121-33 to impeach Paxton, which immediately suspended him from office pending a final decision by the Texas Senate, where his wife, Angela Paxton, is a senator. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have Republican majorities.
The proceedings are expected to begin at 1 p.m. local time Sunday. Paxton had earlier called for protests at the Capitol in Austin.
Paxton denied the charges and called the actions “illegal, immoral and deeply unfair” in a statement on Twitter after Saturday’s vote.
“Today’s ugly scene in the Texas House confirmed that the scandalous impeachment plot against me was never intended to be fair or just,” he said, calling it a political sham.
“I look forward to a speedy resolution in the Texas Senate, where I have full confidence that the process will be fair and just,” he said.
Trump, on his social media platform Truth Social, defended Paxton and wrote: “Free Ken Paxton.”
The 20 impeachment filings filed by a Republican-led House committee accuse Paxton of improperly aiding a wealthy political donor, conducting a bogus investigation against a whistleblower in his office that fired him, and covering up his wrongdoing in a separate federal securities fraud case against him, among other crimes. .
Paxton, who previously served in the House and Senate, has taken a position on the far right on divisive cultural issues. He has sued the Biden administration nearly 50 times in an effort to stop what he calls “illegal authoritarian policies” on issues including immigration, gun rights and business regulation.
Google has repeatedly sued Alphabet (NASDAQ::) Paxton, resulting in an $8 million settlement in mid-May to settle allegations of deceptive advertising promoting the Pixel 4 smartphone. It sued the company in 2020, accusing it of breaking antitrust laws to boost its already dominant advertising business. That lawsuit is still ongoing.