The Texas Senate on Saturday acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton on all 16 articles of impeachment he faced before that body, allowing the conservative firebrand to keep his state office.
Paxton, a Republican, has been dogged by corruption allegations since first taking office in 2014. He still faces a state trial on securities fraud and is under investigation by the FBI.
But Paxton was vindicated on Saturday by easily winning acquittal on the various allegations of corruption contained in the articles of impeachment, which the Texas House passed by a wide margin in May.
Paxton, an ally of former US President Donald Trump, repeatedly insisted that he was innocent and that the impeachment trial was a political witchhunt.
“Today, the truth prevailed. The truth could not be buried by mudslinging politicians or their powerful benefactors,” Paxton said in a written statement after the vote.
After closing the impeachment proceedings, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, a Republican who as president of the Senate presided over the trial as its judge, sharply criticized the entire process as a rush job that lacked transparency. He said House members had “virtually no time” to actually study the article of impeachment before voting on them.
