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Fight still ahead for Texas' Ken Paxton after historic impeachment deepens GOP divisions

AUSTIN, Texas — The historic impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton plunged Republicans on Sunday into a fight over whether to banish one of their own in America’s biggest red state after years of scandal and criminal accusations that will now be at the center of a trial in the state Senate.

Paxton said he has “full confidence” as he awaits judgement from the Senate, where his conservative allies include his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, who has not said whether she will recuse herself from the proceedings to determine whether her husband will be permanently removed from office.

For now, Texas’ three-term attorney general is immediately suspended after the state House of Representatives on Saturday impeached Paxton on 20 articles that included bribery and abuse of public trust.

The decisive 121-23 vote amounted to a clear rebuke from the GOP-controlled chamber after nearly a decade of Republican lawmakers taking a mostly muted stance on Paxton’s alleged misdeeds, which include felony securities fraud charges from 2015 and an ongoing FBI investigation into corruption accusations.

He is just the third sitting official in Texas’ nearly 200-year history to have been impeached.

“No one person should be above the law, least not the top law officer of the state of Texas,” said Republican state Rep. David Spiller, who was part of a House investigative committee that this week revealed it had quietly been looking into Paxton for months.

PHOTOS: Fight still ahead for Texas’ Ken Paxton after historic impeachment deepens GOP divisions

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has remained silent about Paxton all week , including after Saturday’s impeachment. Abbott, who was the state’s attorney general prior to Paxton’s taking the job in 2015, has the power to appoint a temporary replacement pending the outcome in the Senate trial.

It is not year clear when the Senate trial will take place. Final removal of Paxton would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, where Republican members are generally aligned with the party’s hard right. The Senate is led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has served as state chairman for former President Donald Trump’s campaigns in Texas.

Before the vote Saturday, Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz came to Paxton’s defense, with the senator calling the impeachment process “a travesty” and saying the attorney general’s legal troubles should be left to the courts.

“Free Ken Paxton,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, warning that if House Republicans proceeded with the impeachment, “I will fight you.”

Paxton, 60, decried the outcome in the House moments after scores of his fellow partisans voted for impeachment. His office pointed to internal reports that found no wrongdoing.

“The ugly spectacle in the Texas House today confirmed the outrageous impeachment plot against me was never meant to be fair or just,” Paxton said. “It was a politically motivated sham from the beginning.”

Lawmakers allied with Paxton tried to discredit the investigation by noting that hired investigators, not panel members, interviewed witnesses. They also said several of the investigators had voted in Democratic primaries, tainting the impeachment, and that Republican legislators had too little time to review evidence.

“I perceive it could be political weaponization,” Rep. Tony Tinderholt, one of the House’s most conservative members, said before the vote. Republican Rep. John Smithee compared the proceeding to “a Saturday mob out for an afternoon lynching.”

Rice University political science professor Mark P. Jones said the swift move to impeach kept Paxton from rallying significant support and allowed quietly frustrated Republicans to come together.

“If you ask most Republicans privately, they feel Paxton is an embarrassment. But most were too afraid of the base to oppose him,” Jones said. By voting as a large bloc, he added, the lawmakers gained political cover.

To Paxton’s longstanding detractors, however, the rebuke was years overdue.

In 2014, he admitted to violating Texas securities law, and a year later was indicted on securities fraud charges in his hometown near Dallas, accused of defrauding investors in a tech startup. He pleaded not guilty to two felony counts carrying a potential sentence of five to 99 years.

He opened a legal defense fund and accepted $100,000 from an executive whose company was under investigation by Paxton’s office for Medicaid fraud. An additional $50,000 was donated by an Arizona retiree whose son Paxton later hired to a high-ranking job but soon was fired after displaying child pornography in a meeting. In 2020, Paxton intervened in a Colorado mountain community where a Texas donor and college classmate faced removal from his lakeside home under coronavirus orders.

But what ultimately unleashed the impeachment push was Paxton’s relationship with Austin real estate developer Nate Paul.

In 2020, eight top aides told the FBI they were concerned Paxton was misusing his office to help Paul over the developer’s unproven claims about an elaborate conspiracy to steal $200 million of his properties. The FBI searched Paul’s home in 2019, but he has not been charged and denies wrongdoing. Paxton also told staff members he had an affair with a woman who, it later emerged, worked for Paul.

The impeachment accuses Paxton of attempting to interfere in foreclosure lawsuits and issuing legal opinions to benefit Paul. The bribery charges included in the impeachment allege Paul employed the woman with whom Paxton had an affair in exchange for legal help and that he paid for expensive renovations to the attorney general’s home. A senior lawyer for Paxton’s office, Chris Hilton, said Friday that the attorney general paid for all repairs and renovations.

Other charges, including lying to investigators, date back to Paxton’s still-pending securities fraud indictment.

Four aides who reported Paxton to the FBI later sued under Texas’ whistleblower law, and in February he agreed to settle the case for $3.3 million. The House committee said the probe was sparked by Paxton seeking legislative approval for the payout.

“But for Paxton’s own request for a taxpayer-funded settlement over his wrongful conduct, Paxton would not be facing impeachment,” the panel said.

Biden, McCarthy strike tentative deal to raise debt limit deal

Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden struck a tentative deal on Saturday to raise the debt limit in exchange for cutting spending.

The duo agreed to the terms in a phone call after weeks of negotiation. Mr. McCarthy is set to brief House GOP lawmakers on the package, which extends the federal debt limit past the June 5th deadline and caps spending growth.

The breakthrough came after weeks of negotiations. Negotiators for both sides stressed the agreement was “in principle” and obstacles could still emerge as it’s converted into legislative text.

The deal will have to garner the support of a large number of Republicans and potentially Democrats to pass the narrowly divided House.

Man accused of breaking into cop car and stealing a rifle while wearing police insignia

A man was arrested Friday in Pentagon City, accused by the Arlington County Police Department of breaking into a cop car and stealing a police rifle.

Suspect Tyler Rodriguez-Hernandez, 21, police say, discharged a fire extinguisher, used a shovel to break into an ACPD cop car in a parking garage in the 700 block of 12th Street South in Arlington, Virginia, before then taking a rifle and other items.

Witnesses in the area called 911 around 9:06 a.m., reporting a man waving around a long gun as he walked up and down 12th Street South, near the entrance to the Pentagon City Metrorail station.

Callers also reported the man wearing federal agency insignia and a ballistic vest, according to ARLNow.com, and suggested he was going towards the mall after trying to drop off a bag in the lobby of a nearby apartment building.

The man, which police believe to be Mr. Rodriguez-Hernandez, was caught on traffic cameras jogging towards the mall.

After a brief jaunt in the mall, Mr. Rodriguez-Hernandez entered another parking garage in the 1100 block of South Hayes Street, where he was apprehended by police. No shots were fired and no one was injured during the incident.

Mr. Rodriguez-Hernandez has been charged with grand larceny, petit larceny, receiving stolen goods, destruction of property, wearing body armor while committing a crime, and the unlawful wearing of police insignia.

Vice President Harris delivers commencement address to West Point graduates

Vice President Kamala Harris described to West Point graduates Saturday the most significant challenges they would face.

Ms. Harris became the first woman to deliver a commencement address at the graduation ceremony at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, warning the 950 graduates they were “an increasingly unsettled world where long-standing principles are at risk.”

“A once-in-a-century global pandemic took millions of lives and disrupted life for billions more. America ended our longest war. And Russia launched the first major ground war in Europe since World War Two,” she said.

Ms. Harris said that in Ukraine, “Russia’s aggression is an attack on the lives and freedom of the Ukrainian people and an attack on international rules and norms that have served as the foundation of international security and prosperity for generations.”

She said China is “rapidly modernizing its military and threatening both the freedom of the seas and rules of international commerce” and that “autocrats have become bolder, the threat of terrorism persists, and an accelerating climate crisis continues to disrupt lives and livelihoods.”

Ms. Harris called each a “threat to global stability and security.”

The Vice President avoided politically charged rhetoric in her remarks, unlike President Biden when he addressed Howard University last week.

Owner of Indiana funeral home pleads guilty to over 40 counts of theft for services not rendered

The owner of a Jeffersonville, Indiana, funeral home pleaded guilty Friday to over 40 felony counts of theft, having failed to render the after-death services for which he had been paid.

Law enforcement uncovered 31 unrefrigerated and decomposing bodies and the ashes of 17 cremated people at the Lankford Funeral Home in July 2022.

The investigation into the facility was launched after the Clark County Coroner’s Office reported a strong smell coming from the building.

Some of the bodies within the facility had been there since March 2022.

Owner Randy Lankford was charged with over 40 counts of theft, having failed to have completed funeral services and failed to turn over the ashes to the people’s loved ones.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita had Lankford’s license to operate suspended in August 2022.

“Grieving families must be able to trust that their loved ones’ remains will be respectfully and properly handled,” Attorney General Rokita said in a statement at the time.

Moves are now being made to revoke Lankford’s license altogether so that he will not be able to resume work as a funeral director going forward.

Lankford faces a proposed sentence of four years in prison with eight years of house arrest and will have to pay $46,000 in restitution to 53 families.

Some victims had multiple loved ones inside the funeral facility and were perturbed at the terms of Lankford’s proposed sentence.

“I’m just shocked really, speechless. It doesn’t really give me hope for the justice system that’s for sure,” Derrick Kessinger, who had entrusted the funeral care of his father, his fiance, and her father to Lankford, told WDRB-TV.

Mr. Kessinger did eventually receive their remains.

Lankford himself has not yet addressed the victims of theft, but his attorney indicated that he would do so at his sentencing hearing on June 23.

“Mr. Lankford truly does feel very remorseful. He’s very remorseful and he’s going to make a statement at the sentencing hearing to address all these victims, clearly can’t take back what happened and he’s accepted responsibility and hopes it brings some closure to these victims,” Lankford’s attorney, Tyler Miller, told the Jeffersonville-based News and Tribune newspaper.

Since the police bust at the funeral home, at least 28 civil suits have been filed by victims against Lankford, all of which are still pending.

Texas House launches historic impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Ken Paxton

Texas’ Republican-led House of Representatives launched historic impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday as Donald Trump defended the scandal-plagued GOP official from a vote that could lead to his ouster.

The House convened in the afternoon to debate whether to impeach and suspend Paxton from office over allegations of bribery, abuse of public trust and that he is unfit for office — just some of the accusations that have trailed Texas’ top lawyer for most of his three terms.

The hearing sets up what could be a remarkably sudden downfall for one of the GOP’s most prominent legal combatants, who in 2020 asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral defeat of Trump. Only two officials in Texas’ nearly 200-year history have been impeached.

Paxton, 60, has called the impeachment proceedings “political theater” based on “hearsay and gossip, parroting long-disproven claims,” and an attempt to disenfranchise voters who reelected him in November. On Friday, he asked supporters “to peacefully come let their voices be heard at the Capitol tomorrow.”

As the proceedings began, Paxton supporters mixed in the House public gallery with visitors just curious to see the government in action.

“This is a coup,” said Kathie Glass of Houston, who waited in line for an hour to get a seat. Dimitri Nichols, of Austin, said: “Texas voters were aware of these allegations.”

In opening statements, Rep. Charlie Geren, a member of the committee that investigated Paxton, said the attorney general had called lawmakers and threatened them with political “consequences.” As the charges against Paxton were read, some lawmakers shook their heads. Impeachment is expected to be debated for four hours, followed by closing remarks and the vote.

Paxton has been under FBI investigation for years over accusations that he used his office to help a donor and was separately indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015, though he has yet to stand trial. Until this week his fellow Republicans have taken a muted stance on the allegations.

Impeachment requires just a simple majority in the House. That means only a small fraction of its 85 Republicans would need to join 64 Democrats in voting against him.

If impeached, Paxton would be removed from office pending a Senate trial, and it would fall to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to appoint an interim replacement. Final removal would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, where Paxton’s wife’s, Angela, is a member.

Texas’ top elected Republicans had been notably quiet about Paxton this week. But on Saturday both Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz came to his defense, with the senator calling the impeachment process “a travesty” and saying the attorney general’s legal troubles should be left to the courts.

“Free Ken Paxton,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, adding that if House Republicans proceed with the process, “I will fight you.”

Abbott, who lauded Paxton while swearing him in for a third term in January, is among those who have remained silent. The governor spoke at a Memorial Day service in the House chamber about three hours before the scheduled start of the impeachment proceedings. Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan also attended but the two appeared to exchange few words, and Abbott left without commenting to reporters.

In one sense, Paxton’s political peril arrived with dizzying speed: The House committee’s investigation of him came to light Tuesday, and by Thursday lawmakers issued 20 articles of impeachment.

But to Paxton’s detractors, the rebuke was years overdue.

In 2014, he admitted to violating Texas securities law, and a year later he was indicted on securities fraud charges in his hometown near Dallas, accused of defrauding investors in a tech startup. He pleaded not guilty to two felony counts carrying a potential sentence of five to 99 years.

He opened a legal defense fund and accepted $100,000 from an executive whose company was under investigation by Paxton’s office for Medicaid fraud. An additional $50,000 was donated by an Arizona retiree whose son Paxton later hired to a high-ranking job but was soon fired after displaying child pornography in a meeting. In 2020, Paxton intervened in a Colorado mountain community where a Texas donor and college classmate faced removal from his lakeside home under coronavirus orders.

But what ultimately unleased the impeachment push was Paxton’s relationship with Austin real estate developer Nate Paul.

In 2020, eight top aides told the FBI they were concerned Paxton was misusing his office to help Paul over the developer’s unproven claims that an elaborate conspiracy to steal $200 million of his properties was afoot. The FBI searched Paul’s home in 2019, but he has not been charged and denies wrongdoing. Paxton also told staff members he had an affair with a woman who, it later emerged, worked for Paul.

The impeachment accuses Paxton of attempting to interfere in foreclosure lawsuits and issuing legal opinions to benefit Paul. Its bribery charges allege that Paul employed the woman with whom Paxton had an affair in exchange for legal help and that he paid for expensive renovations to the attorney general’s home.

A senior lawyer for Paxton’s office, Chris Hilton, said Friday that the attorney general paid for all repairs and renovations.

Other charges, including lying to investigators, date back to Paxton’s still-pending securities fraud indictment.

Four of the aides who reported Paxton to the FBI later sued under Texas’ whistleblower law, and in February he agreed to settle the case for $3.3 million. The House committee said it was Paxton seeking legislative approval for the payout that sparked their probe.

“But for Paxton’s own request for a taxpayer-funded settlement over his wrongful conduct, Paxton would not be facing impeachment,” the panel said.

State Farm will no longer insure homes, businesses in California due to fire risks and costs

State Farm announced Friday that it will not take new applications for personal line or business property and casualty insurance in the state of California.

The risk of catastrophes such as wildfires, floods, and earthquakes, as well as spikes in construction costs, led State Farm to stop taking California insurance applications. The new policy takes effect Saturday.

“State Farm General Insurance Company made this decision due to historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation, rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, and a challenging reinsurance market,” the company wrote in a statement.

The reinsurance market refers to the practice of multiple insurance companies sharing risks for clients that are too big to handle for one company alone. Companies purchase policies from other insurance companies, thereby spreading the risk out at a manageable cost for those involved.

State Farm car insurance is not affected by the change, and existing State Farm customers will continue to be served by the company.

As of 2021, State Farm was the largest property and casualty insurer in California, serving 8.339% percent of the total market, bringing in over $7 billion in premiums. The company’s losses totaled to over $4 billion, a loss ratio of 59.47%.

State Farm also said that it would work with the California Department of Insurance and policymakers to build up the market capacity for insurance in the state. The move, State Farm indicated, was made to preserve the company’s financial health.

California border patrol agents seize 112 pounds of fentanyl worth over $1.5 million

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Pine Valley, California, announced Friday the seizure of 112 pounds of blue fentanyl pills worth around $1,536,000.

The Pine Valley border station is near the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego. On May 18, agents stopped a 2003 SUV of unspecified make and model. When a drug dog was alerted to something in the vehicle, the car and its driver, a U.S. citizen, were taken to another checkpoint.

At the checkpoint, the agents found the narcotics hidden inside the roof of the car in nine plastic-wrapped packages. The blue pills within were found to be fentanyl.

The driver, whose identity was not disclosed by CBP, was handed over to the custody of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. The drugs, meanwhile, were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Drug smuggling is a persistent problem at the U.S.-Mexico border. In the first four months of 2023, agents in the San Diego border patrol sector have seized drugs worth over $266.5 million

Of that amount, nearly half has been fentanyl — the sector has brought in 4,403 pounds of the stuff, worth over $119.8 million on the street.