Here’s when the Texas House will take up Articles of Impeachment against AG Ken Paxton

The Texas House of Representatives is expected to take up articles of impeachment against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at 1 p.m. Saturday, according to a memo obtained by the Star-Telegram.

And as they wait for the weekend debate, lawmakers on Friday reviewed the 20 articles against the states’ highest ranking attorney, whose office represents the state in court, enforces child support orders and works to shield Texans from consumer fraud.

A thick packet of documents — a resolution containing the articles and a transcript of an hours-long committee hearing during which House General Investigating Committee lawyers laid out their case against Paxton — were distributed after 8 p.m. Thursday to the officials. They came just hours after the House committee investigating Paxton, a Republican, recommended his impeachment.

He would be the third official in Texas to be impeached and the first since 1975.

“This is serious,” Rep. Craig Goldman, a Fort Worth Republican who chairs the House GOP caucus, said on Thursday. “It’s historic, and there’s not one member who takes this lightly.”

Paxton has been under felony indictment for securities fraud since 2015, but has not gone to trial in the case. Separately, the FBI is investigating him for allegedly abusing his office to aid a campaign contributor, real estate investor Nate Paul, the Associated Press reported. The former employees who reported him to the FBI for corruption also filed a whistleblower lawsuit.

The committee, it was revealed Tuesday, had been investigating Paxton for months after he agreed to settle that lawsuit with $3.3 million in taxpayer dollars. Money for the settlement is subject to legislative approval.

“We cannot over-emphasize the fact that, but for Paxton’s own request for a taxpayer-funded settlement over his wrongful conduct, Paxton would not be facing impeachment in this House,” read the Friday memo from members of the House General Investigating Committee.

The committee’s vote to recommend impeachment was unanimous among the committee composed of two Democrats and three Republicans, including Fort Worth Rep. Charlie Geren. They are proposing four hours of debate on Saturday, allocated equally between opponents and proponents, with 40 minutes set aside for opening presentations and 20 minutes allocated for members of the committee to make closing statements.

Paxton discredited the committee’s lawyer’s findings in a Thursday statement as “hearsay and gossip, parroting long-disproven claims.”

“By attacking the Office of the Attorney General, corrupted politicians in the Texas House, led by liberal Speaker Dade Phelan, are actively destroying Texas’s position as the most powerful backstop against the Biden agenda in the entire country,” Paxton said in a Thursday statement.

In a Friday news conference, he criticized what he described as an “illegal impeachment scheme” and touted his record taking on the Biden administration. The attorney general office’s General Litigation Division Chief Chris Hilton has said Paxton’s impeachment would violate state law because conduct predates the most recent November election. The committee in the Friday memo said the code he cited doesn’t apply to impeachment.

“For this crucial work to continue, the political theater must come to an end,” Paxton said.

Several Tarrant County lawmakers reached by the Star-Telegram on Friday said they were reviewing the documents related to Paxton’s impeachment.

It’s a lengthy list and “very concerning,” said Rep. Stephanie Klick, a Fort Worth Republican.

Asked if she knew how she’d vote, Klick said voters want her to consider things carefully and that’s what she’s doing.

“It’s never the wrong time to do the right thing,” she said.

Rep. Nate Schatzline, a Fort Worth Republican, also said he was reviewing the documents. Rep. Salman Bhojani, a Euless Democrat, said in a written statement the decision is one that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

“This vote is historic—one that shows no one is above the law in our state, even at the highest levels of government,” Bhojani said. “I plan to review the evidence provided by the House General Investigating Committee and will vote to ensure law and accountability prevail in Texas.”

Goldman on Thursday, before the impeachment documents were presented, said he’d watched the committee’s hearing and will listen to what the committee’s chairman Andrew Murr, a Junction Republican, lays out before the House and then make a decision.

Grand Prairie Democrat Chris Turner on Friday said he’d gone through the packet of documents and articles of impeachment and had reached a decision on his vote.

“After reviewing all that, I’ve concluded I agree with the committee and I will vote to impeach,” he said.

It’s hard to overstate the significance of the vote on the articles, Turner said.

“I think these that these are serious allegations that merit impeachment and a trial in the Senate,” he said.