Attorney General Ken Paxton appears to be growing more paranoid about a second impeachment, as he said Wednesday that the Texas House Ethics Committee plans to recommend another impeachment, though he offered no evidence.
“Next week’s House General Investigating Committee is yet another desperate attempt by the Republican establishment to impeach me,” Paxton said in a statement. “Their bitter obsession with taking me down knows no bounds, and they will stop at nothing to remove me from office.”
Paxton refused to elaborate on whether he had any evidence to back up his claims, and members of the House committee have already said he is wrong.
The committee’s chairman, Rep. Andrew Murr, wrote a statement saying Paxton’s “far-fetched fantasy” that the committee is meeting to talk about him is false and that the committee is meeting on a completely unrelated matter.
“No one should assume that Ken Paxton is ever telling the truth,” Murr wrote. “This is the same man that said he didn’t do anything the whistleblowers accused him of doing and later turned completely around and conceded that he did.”
“There’s no basis for that whatsoever,” a member of the Committee told The Dallas Morning News. “I’ll put it this way: I don’t think we’re going to be there very long.”
The committee, made up of three Republicans and two Democrats, will meet July 17 at the Capitol, and the meetings and topics are typically closed to the public.
The investigative committee also investigated former Rep. Bryan Slaton for sexual misconduct last year, and he was unanimously expelled from the House.
Paxton also said there was a conspiracy between Democrats and Republicans to remove him from office
“These lame-duck Republicans, who lost their primaries thanks to my support, are now conspiring with Democrats to remove me from office,” he wrote.
Last year, the House voted 121-23 to impeach him over accusations of bribery, obstructions of justice and abuse of power. At the end, the Senate voted to acquit Paxton.
Of the 60 House Republicans who voted to impeach him, 13 lost their primaries and four did not seek re-election. House Speaker Dade Phelan was Paxton’s primary target, but managed to survive a tough re-election.
Paxton’s delirium over a second impeachment comes two weeks after news that he is still under federal investigation for fraud and misuse of power to benefit his friend Nate Paul, a real estate investor.
