Six of impeached Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s senior staffers have taken leave from their posts at the attorney general’s office to assist in Paxton’s impeachment trial in the Texas Senate.
The staffers include the sitting solicitor general and chief of the general litigation division, among others, according to The Texas Tribune.
Paxton recently became the first Texas attorney general ever to be impeached in the state’s history, the first statewide officer to face impeachment in over a century, and the first public official to face impeachment since 1975.
Paxton has been accused by the Texas House of Representatives of bribery and abuse of office stemming from an investigation into his dealings with Austin real-estate developer Nate Paul, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Paxton allegedly gave Paul sensitive legal documents regarding Paul’s run-ins with the FBI in exchange for $25,000 in campaign cash to remodel Paxton’s home and employ a woman Paxton allegedly conducted an extramarital affair with, among other accusations.
The impeached attorney general has also been under a Department of Justice investigation for several years and has been indicted for felony security fraud charges since July 2015.
Before Tuesday, Paxton’s impeachment defense team was unclear. Now, it is clear that senior aides will lead the effort to exonerate Paxton in the Texas Senate.
The staffers taking leave are Solicitor General Judd Stone, Assistant Solicitor Generals Joseph Mazzara and Kateland Jackson, Senior Attorney Allison Collins, General Litigation Chief Chris Hilton, and Executive Assistant Jordan Eskew.
The legal defense is currently being assisted by a hard-nosed political defense, which has included Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and former President Donald Trump. Trump personally entered the political fray surrounding the impeachment, threatening to back a Republican primary challenge to any state senator or representative who votes to impeach Paxton.
Paxton has been temporarily suspended from office until the conclusion of his Senate trial. A two-thirds majority of Texas Senators would be required to vote for his conviction to remove him from office.
Paxton believes he will survive the Senate trial and remain in the office that Texas voters overwhelmingly re-elected him to in November 2022.
