After weeks of speculation, Republican state Senator Angela Paxton announced Monday what many had come to suspect—that she would not recuse herself as a de facto juror in the impeachment trial of her husband Attorney General Ken Paxton. “As a member of the Senate, I hold these obligations sacred and I will carry out my duties, not because it is easy, but because the Constitution demands it and because my constituents deserve it,” Senator Paxton said.
This news came amid growing suspicion that perhaps the attorney general, who was impeached by the state House last month, would find a political escape hatch in the Texas Senate. Besides his dubiously impartial spouse, other walking conflicts in the Capitol’s upper chamber include Senator Bryan Hughes, who is alleged to have served as a cutout in one aspect of Paxton’s corruption, and another member who once employed the AG’s former mistress. As of Tuesday afternoon, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick had said the rules of the coming impeachment trial will likely be made public sometime this week.
These pre-trial machinations come on the heels of other developments that suggest Paxton’s impeachment saga, which came in a surprising fit of accountability by Texas Republicans, will quickly unveil the worst of the state’s ruling party too. At the least, political watchers are unlikely to be bored.
