Will Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton be impeached? Here's what we know.

The Texas House General Investigating Committee voted Thursday to recommend articles of impeachment against Attorney General Ken Paxton to the full chamber.

The unanimous recommendation from the committee sets the stage for a vote by the entire House, which could happen any day. If a majority of the 149-member House approves the impeachment articles before the legislative session ends Monday, senators will then convene in a special session to have a trial and seal Paxton's fate in office.

The three-hour hearing

Thursday's recommendation comes a day after the investigative panel held a hearing into criminal allegations against Paxton, a three-term Republican. Over three hours Wednesday, four lawyers appointed by the committee laid out evidence pointing to years of corruption. Paxton, they said, abused his office repeatedly to aid a campaign donor, Austin real estate developer Nate Paul. Paxton, they allege, retaliated against employees who exposed his wrongdoing to federal investigators.

Committee investigators also rehashed complaints made against Paxton in a pending 2015 securities case for which the attorney general remains indicted.

Most of the information presented in committee had long ago been made public in court filings and media reports. But the hearing was noteworthy in that it came in a Republican-controlled House that had not previously condemned Paxton's behavior.

More: House panel recommends impeaching Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton amid allegations

What Ken Paxton is thinking?

"Just yesterday, four liberal lawyers put forward a report to the House General Investigating Committee based on hearsay and gossip, parroting long-disproven claims," Paxton said in a statement Thursday night. "Today, that Committee has asked the Texas House of Representatives to use their unsubstantiated report to overturn the results of a free and fair election. This process provided no opportunity for rebuttal or due process. They even refused to allow a senior attorney from my office to provide the facts. They rejected every attempt to seek a full accounting of the truth."

What are Republicans thinking?

Whether there's enough Republican support in the House to approve the impeachment articles is uncertain, but Thursday was not a good sign for Paxton. Three members on the investigative committee are Republicans, including the chair, Rep. Andrew Murr of Junction. So is Speaker Dade Phelan, who says the committee must get to the bottom of the allegations in weighing whether to approve a $3.3 million payment with public money to settle a lawsuit against Paxton filed by four former aides in his office. The aides filed a whistleblower lawsuit in 2020 saying they were improperly fired after they made criminal allegations against Paxton to federal investigators.

Paxton remains under federal investigation.

In the House, Republicans outnumber Democrats 85 to 64. Assuming all Democrats vote to impeach Paxton — which is hardly a lock — a total of 11 Republicans must do the same to advance the impeachment to the Senate.

What are the whistleblowers thinking?

Austin lawyer Tom Nesbitt, who represents former AG employee Blake Brickman in the whistleblower lawsuit, said the evidence against Paxton is overwhelming.

“The committee brought in investigators with unimpeachable credentials — former state and federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials with vast experience prosecuting public integrity crimes," he said. "Those investigators’ findings were overwhelming in showing that what the whistleblowers reported to law enforcement was true, that it constituted evidence of crimes within OAG, that the OAG’s formal response to the allegations was a pack of lies, and that the whistleblowers sacrificed their careers for the good of all Texans. I hope Texas has their back like they had ours.”

More: Texas AG Ken Paxton calls on House Speaker Dade Phelan to resign, says he was intoxicated on the job

How could Paxton be removed from office?

The House would have to vote to move forward with impeachment. The matter would then be referred to the Senate, where a vote to remove Paxton would require support from two-thirds of the senators, which is 21 members. It's unclear if Paxton's wife, Sen. Angela Paxton, must recuse herself.

Under the Texas Constitution, Paxton would have to step aside at least temporarily if the House votes to impeach him.

"All officers against whom articles of impeachment may be preferred shall be suspended from the exercise of the duties of their office, during the pendency of such impeachment," the Constitution states in Article XV. "The governor may make a provisional appointment to fill the vacancy, occasioned by the suspension of an officer until the decision on the impeachment."

Has any state official in Texas been impeached?

Only two Texas officials have ever been impeached: Gov. James Ferguson in 1917 and District Judge O.P. Carrillo in 1975.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas impeachment: House committee recommends ousting Ken Paxton