Texas state Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, while laying out the case for impeachment against Ken Paxton Saturday, claimed the attorney general "personally" called several Republican members of the Texas House of Representatives this past week and threatened them with political retribution if they supported the case against him.
"I would like to point out that several members of this House, while on the floor of this House doing the state's business, received telephone calls from [Attorney] General Paxton personally, threatening them with political consequences in our next election," the Fort Worth Republican said, reported The Dallas Morning News.
The comments came before the House voted 121-23 Saturday afternoon to impeach Paxton, who is now suspended from performing the duties of his office until his trial is held in the Senate.
Geren is one of the five representatives on the General Investigating Committee alleging that Paxton has broken the law and abused his office, which Paxton has strongly denied.
The committee filed 20 articles of impeachment against Paxton, now in his third term. He has said the proceedings against him are politically motivated and has spoken out on social media and in television interviews, including with Newsmax, to defend himself.
He told Newsmax's "Greg Kelly Reports" Friday, in an exclusive interview on the eve of his impeachment hearings, that the state House of Representatives has "concocted" the charges against him, and called the action "illegal."
"There's a statute in Texas, which they are not following: This is an illegal impeachment," Paxton said. "The statute says that if there were complaints prior to the election, there were issues prior to the election, you can't bring impeachment on issues that occurred, whether true or false, before the election: 19 of the 20 in this complaint were from issues related to the election."
Meanwhile, as Geren was making his remarks, Paxton was tweeting out messages of support from conservative personalities.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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