After yesterday’s news that Ken Paxton has been referred to the full Texas House for impeachment, my only question was, which crime was finally bad enough to finally tip the scales of justice against him? Did Republicans finally awake from an 8 year coma? Did they finally turn on the news? Identifying crimes and conduct that have been obvious to normal Texans for years, the House General Investigating Committee filed 20 articles of impeachment against Paxton listing crimes and corrupt conduct such as bribery, misuse of funds, abusing employees, using the power of his office to help a friend in a private lawsuit, lying on the record, and dereliction of duty, among other acts not generally associated with a state’s top law enforcement officer. Paxton’s defense? It’s rich – you can’t impeach me for any crimes I committed BEFORE the last election. His argument is that each election washes away any prior misdeeds from previous terms. This claim not the only issue, though.
Paxton has been under felony indictment for securities fraud, among other crimes, FOR EIGHT YEARS. He has successfully buried that case for that extended period after the legislature passed a 2015 law at Abbott’s urging to dismantle the Public Integrity Unit run by the Travis County DA and move cases against statewide officials to the Texas Rangers and local prosecutors in officials’ home jurisdictions. Paxton’s felony case was moved from Austin to Collin County and was buried and remains bogged down to this day. In fact, since that law was enacted, prosecutions of state officials have virtually disappeared. 90% of investigations result in no charges, and the people who are charged are generally low level employees. This is not a flaw in the law – it’s a feature; the legislature and Abbott successfully blunted the only tool Texas had to prosecute corruption by taking away the only independent watchdog in the state. Paxton’s unchecked corruption and criminality is the logical (and obvious) result of dismantling the existing justice system. And it’s not just Paxton – high level officials in Austin can pretty much do what they want as long as their local DAs protect them, and that is exactly what’s happening.
What kicked off this entire episode this session was a request by Paxton that WE, the taxpayers, pay $3.3 million to settle one of the lawsuits against him that had been filed by his former employees for abuse and retaliation. House speaker Dade Phelan had opposed the payment and the investigation into this settlement was begun. That investigation then turned into an impeachment inquiry as the evidence against Paxton became so mountainous that not even Republicans could ignore it.
So the question is, which crime tipped the scales of justice? Was it one crime, or did the collective weight of them all finally do the deed? In my view, any of these well known crimes should have resulted in Paxton’s removal and jailing years ago. That it hasn’t happened is a direct result of Republican corruption and the Texas Rangers looking the other way while local prosecutors selectively charged other low level officials.
I’ve believed since Rick Perry that Texas was lost. It’s still lost, but have we finally reached bottom after 30 years of decline? I’m a long way from popping champagne and tossing babies in the air, but maybe we’ve finally gotten there. There’s no way but up from here.
