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      Impeachment proceedings against scandal-hit Texas attorney general begin

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      Texas’s Republican-led house of representatives launched historic impeachment proceedings against attorney general Ken Paxton on Saturday as the scandal-plagued lawyer called on supporters to protest a vote that could lead to his ouster and Donald Trump came to his defense.The house convened on Saturday 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. They’re just some of the accusations that have trailed Texas’s top lawyer for most of his three terms.In opening statements, the state congressman 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.The hearing could result in a remarkably sudden downfall for one of the Republican party’s most prominent legal combatants, who in 2020 asked the US supreme court to overturn president Joe Biden’s electoral defeat of Donald Trump. Only two officials in Texas’s nearly 200-year history have been impeached.Paxton, 60, has called the impeachment proceedings “political theater” and on Friday, he asked supporters “to peacefully come let their voices be heard at the Capitol tomorrow”.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.If impeached, Paxton would be removed from office pending a senate trial, and it would fall to the Republican governor, 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.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 unleashed the impeachment push was Paxton’s relationship with the 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 $200m 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 on Friday that the attorney general paid for all repairs and renovations. More

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      Texas attorney general calls for state capitol protests before impeachment vote – video

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      The Texas attorney general has called for his supporters to protest at the state capitol when Republicans in the House of Representatives take up historical impeachment proceedings against him. The state house has set a Saturday vote to consider impeaching Republican Ken Paxton and suspending him from office over allegations of bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of public trust. ‘I want to invite my fellow citizens and friends to peacefully come let their voices be heard at the capitol tomorrow,’ Paxton said at a news conference on Friday. The request echoes that of the former president Donald Trump for people to protest against his electoral defeat on 6 January 2021, when a mob violently stormed the US Capitol in Washington. More

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      Texas attorney general urges supporters to protest at capitol ahead of impeachment vote

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      The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, has urged his supporters to protest at the state capitol when Republicans in the House of Representatives take up historic impeachment proceedings against him.The state House has set a Saturday vote to consider impeaching Paxton and suspending him from office over allegations of bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of public trust – just some of the accusations that have trailed him for most of his three terms.Paxton, a 60-year-old Republican, decried the impeachment proceedings as “political theater” that will “inflict lasting damage on the Texas House”, adding to his earlier claims that it was an effort to disfranchise the voters who returned him to office in November.“I want to invite my fellow citizens and friends to peacefully come let their voices be heard at the capitol tomorrow,” he said at a news conference, without taking any questions. “Exercise your right to petition your government.”The request echoes former president Donald Trump’s call for people to protest against his electoral defeat on 6 January 2021, when a mob violently stormed the US Capitol in Washington. Paxton, who spoke at the rally that preceded that insurrection, called his supporters to the Texas capitol on a day when the governor is supposed to deliver a Memorial Day address to lawmakers.If impeached, Paxton would be suspended from office immediately and the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, would appoint an interim replacement.The Republican-led committee spent months quietly investigating Paxton and recommended his impeachment on Thursday on 20 articles. Paxton has said the charges are based on “hearsay and gossip, parroting long-disproven claims”.As reported by the Texas Tribune, four investigators, testifying before the House general investigating committee on Wednesday, described in “painstaking and methodical detail” ways in which they said Paxton violated multiple state laws.Investigators said they believed Paxton wrongly spent official funds and misused his authority to help a friend and financial backer, the Tribune said.Prominent conservatives have been notably quiet on Paxton, but some began to rally around him on Friday. The chairman of the state Republican party, Matt Rinaldi, criticised the process as a “sham” and urged the Republican-controlled Senate to acquit Paxton if he stood trial in that chamber.“It is based on allegations already litigated by voters, led by a liberal speaker trying to undermine his conservative adversaries,” Rinaldi said, echoing Paxton’s criticism of Republican House speaker Dade Phelan. He said the Senate would have to “restore sanity and reason” by acquitting Paxton.It’s unclear how many supporters Paxton may have in the House, but only a simple majority is needed to impeach. That means just a small fraction of the 85 Republican members would need to vote against Paxton if all 64 Democrats do. Final removal would require two-thirds support in the Senate, where Paxton’s wife, Angela, is a member.The move to impeach Paxton sets up what could be a remarkably sudden downfall for one of the Republican party’s most prominent legal combatants, who in 2020 asked the US supreme court to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory.Paxton has been under FBI investigation for years over accusations that he used his office to help a donor. He was separately indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015, but has yet to stand trial.When the five-member committee’s investigation came to light on Tuesday, Paxton suggested it was a political attack by Phelan, calling for his resignation. Phelan’s office brushed this off as an attempt to “save face”. More

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      Texas panel hears allegations of years of misconduct by state attorney general

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      In a dramatic state hearing on Wednesday, the Republican attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, faced allegations of years of misconduct.As reported by the Texas Tribune, four investigators, testifying before the house general investigating committee, described in “painstaking and methodical detail” ways in which they said Paxton violated multiple state laws.Investigators said they believed Paxton wrongly spent official funds and misused his authority to help a friend and financial backer, the Tribune said.In response, Paxton maintained his innocence and vowed “to continue my fight for conservative Texas values”.Paxton was elected in 2014 and has won re-election twice. He has faced significant legal scrutiny before. In 2015, Paxton was indicted on securities fraud charges on which he is yet to stand trial. The US justice department is also investigating Paxton over alleged corruption, according to the Associated Press.In Texas, the state investigators initially looked into a possible $3.3m deal to settle a whistleblower complaint brought by four top deputies who were terminated after alleging Paxton pocketed bribes and engaged in other improper conduct.Andrew Murr, the committee chair, said the settlement would have to be allowed by the state. Murr also said a settlement would thwart a trial in which accusations against Paxton could be litigated publicly.Members of the committee asked whether legislators were being made part of a cover-up, the Tribune said.Murr said: “It is alarming and very serious having this discussion when millions of taxpayer dollars have been asked [for] to remedy what is alleged to be some wrong. That’s something we have to grapple with. It’s challenging.”While many accusations against Paxton were previously known, Wednesday’s hearing indicated the broad scope of investigations. The committee has extensive powers and can recommend punishment to the Texas house.Donna Cameron, one of the investigators, reportedly said some of Paxton’s alleged misconduct could constitute felony offenses including abuse of official capacity, misapplication of fiduciary property and misuse of public information.Investigators believe Paxton made top-level employees do tasks that helped his friend and donor, Nate Paul, a real-estate investor. Another allegation against Paxton is that he gave Paul an FBI dossier about an investigation into him, the Tribune reported.Paul did not immediately respond to a Guardian request for comment.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionMaintaining his innocence, Paxton claimed a politically motivated effort to “sabotage my work”.“The false testimony of highly partisan Democrat [sic] lawyers with the goal of manipulation and misleading the public is reprehensible,” Paxton said on Twitter. “Every allegation is easily disproved, and I look forward to continuing my fight for conservative Texas values.”Paxton has long faced criticism and legal scrutiny. Recently, his investigation of gender-affirming care for youth prompted doctors at an adolescent medicine department in Austin to leave the facility en masse.Paxton alleged the investigation was needed because care children were receiving at Dell children’s clinic was illegal, due to their age.While gender-affirming care for minors is legal in Texas, Paxton and the rightwing governor, Greg Abbott, have described such treatment as child abuse and sought to punish providers and guardians through other legal avenues.Last summer, on the day Roe v Wade was overturned, Paxton issued a notice to encourage local prosecutors to swiftly bring criminal charges against Texans who help people obtain abortions.In February, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction, barring several prosecutors from pursuing organizations that assist with out-of-state abortion care. More

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      Republican bill requiring display of Ten Commandments in Texas schools fails

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      Republicans in Texas failed to pass legislation that would have required the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed in every public school classroom.The controversial bill, authored by the Republican state senator Phil King, would have required schools to display the Old Testament text “in a conspicuous place in each classroom”, in a durable poster or frame.Passed by the Texas senate last week, the bill failed in the house. But it represented another sign of just how far to the right the conservative-majority Texas legislature is willing to go.Civil rights groups condemned the bill as an assault on religious freedom and the separation of church and state guaranteed by the US constitution.In a statement, the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties of Union said: “Parents should be able to decide what religious materials their child should learn.”Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a non-profit advocacy group, told the New York Times: “Forcing public schools to display the Ten Commandments is part of the Christian nationalist crusade to compel all of us to live by their beliefs.”The bill is far from the first attempt by far-right Texas lawmakers to embed Christianity in public education.In 2021, a Texas law came into effect requiring schools to display any donated “In God We Trust” signs, so long as they were in English.More recently, a bill was passed in the Texas legislature that would allow religious chaplains to act as school counselors as soon as the next school year.Another bill would allow public schools to observe a moment of prayer and hear a reading from a religious text, such as the Bible.In 2005, as Texas attorney general, the current Republican governor, Greg Abbott, won a case over attempts to display the Ten Commandments on a monument on the grounds of the state capitol building. More

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      ‘People were stunned’: Uvalde families’ Texas gun safety win lasts just 24 hours

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      Days after a deadly mass shooting in a Dallas suburb, families of another horrific killing gathered in the Texas capitol, demanding a change to the state’s famously lax gun laws.It had been nearly a year since a gunman shot 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, with police waiting more than an hour to confront and kill him. Those children’s parents and relatives hadn’t stopped lobbying Texas lawmakers for stricter gun control.And after eight others were killed at an Allen shopping mall on 7 May, the Uvalde families quickly descended to tell lawmakers to pass their number one priority: to raise the minimum age for Texans to purchase semi-automatic firearms from 18 to 21.They lined the hallways as lawmakers walked through to the House chamber, holding signs and loudly chanting “raise the age”, which in part is an allusion to the 18-year-old Uvalde shooter.“Had this bill been the law in the state of Texas one year ago, the gunman would not have been able to [buy] the semi-automatic weapon he used to murder our daughter,” Kimberly Mata-Rubio, whose daughter Lexi died at the Uvalde school, testified in a Texas house committee hearing. “Our hearts may be broken but our resolve has never been stronger.”But that resolve from the Uvalde families hasn’t coalesced into much legislative progress in the past year, stymied by a strong Republican-led legislature and like-minded governor who has doubled down on opposition to even simple gun control measures.“Disappointment isn’t a strong enough word with regard to the inaction from the legislature,” said Nicole Golden, executive director of Texas Gun Sense, which advocates for gun control laws in the state. “We’re still taking steps in those directions, knowing we’re not there yet.”At the White House, Joe Biden signed one bill into federal law a month after the Uvalde shooting, making some minor changes to congressional gun control measures. In Texas, more than 300 bills relating to firearms have been filed this spring. Few of them will pass. Those that do probably won’t significantly reduce access to guns in the state, and some may make them even more accessible.The federal response to the shooting in Uvalde – exactly one year ago on Wednesday – was swift. The president was quick to demand Congress pass extensive control measures like a ban on assault weapons. But while most Republicans continued to push against the need for stricter gun control, US senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, led negotiations to pass modest adjustments.The law closed a “boyfriend loophole” to regulations banning people who have been convicted of domestic violence crimes from owning a firearm. Previously, the ban only prohibited spouses, or partners who live together or share a child. The new law expands that definition to include dating partners.Its passage was a major milestone for gun control advocates. Congress had not passed any similar gun control measures in nearly 30 years.“At a time when it seems impossible to get anything done in Washington, we are doing something consequential,” Biden said when signing it into law.Since then, there have been more than 650 mass shootings in the United States, according to the non-partisan Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are killed or wounded.After many of them, Biden has re-upped calls for an assault weapons ban and other stricter gun control measures. He’s called the lack of response from Republicans “outrageous and unacceptable”.Much of that inaction is driven in part by Texas lawmakers. Especially on the state level, there has been little to no remedy for mass shootings besides tangential promises of better mental healthcare and other stopgap measures.The Texas state legislature only meets for five months every other year, so this spring lobbyists supporting gun control or, on the contrary, wider access to firearms descended on the capitol in Austin.Many of the measures, including red flag laws, community violence intervention measures, background check requirements and raising the minimum age to own a firearm, have stalled in the Texas capitol.Golden said the legislature did agree to allocate $500,000 over the next two years for the Keep ’Em Safe Texas campaign, which teaches gun owners about proper safe storage of firearms. Golden said proper storage helps stop suicides, homicides and mass shootings like the one five years ago at a Santa Fe, Texas, high school.On major measures, even the most recent mass shooting in the state, which killed eight people including three children in Allen, didn’t seem to sway Texas Republicans.But that shooting did move the needle for one bill in Austin.House Bill 2744, which would raise the age to buy semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21, had stalled in a chamber committee. Two days after the Allen shooting, the bill faced a deadline to be approved by the committee or fail there. Few expected it to move to the full house.After the Uvalde families packed the state capitol, chanting “raise the age” as lawmakers walked to the house floor, the house select committee on community safety quickly called a meeting.The committee voted 8-5 to approve the measure, with two Republicans in support. The room, full of Uvalde families, burst into applause. Some sobbed.“We see so much tragedy with kids getting shot at school. This is a small change we can make to give a lot of people peace of mind and keep kids safe,” Republican Sam Harless, who joined Democrats to advance the bill, told the Dallas Morning News. “I did not come to the legislature to take easy votes.”Golden said the vote was a major milestone for Texas gun policy.“It’s unprecedented at the capitol in general. People were stunned,” Golden said. “I don’t ever want to take away from that.”That win for gun control advocates was short-lived, however.The next day, it failed to meet another critical deadline and was not scheduled for a vote from the full house. Democrats say they will still push for the measure, but it’s unlikely to be approved.“The highs and lows in a matter of a couple days was overwhelming,” Golden said. “You have to take every single step forward and celebrate it and acknowledge it.” More

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      Mother of girl who died in US border patrol custody says agents ignored her

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      The mother of an eight-year-old girl who died in US border patrol custody said on Friday that agents repeatedly ignored pleas to hospitalize her medically fragile daughter as she felt pain in her bones, struggled to breathe and was unable to walk.Agents said her daughter’s diagnosis of influenza did not require hospital care, Mabel Alvarez Benedicks said in an emotional phone interview. They knew the girl had a history of heart problems and sickle cell anemia.“They killed my daughter, because she was nearly a day and a half without being able to breathe,” Alvarez Benedicks said. “She cried and begged for her life and they ignored her. They didn’t do anything for her.”The girl died on Wednesday on what her mother said was the family’s ninth day in border patrol custody. People are to be held no more than 72 hours under agency policy, a rule that is violated during unusually busy times.The account is almost certain to raise questions about whether the border patrol properly handled the situation, the second death of a child in federal officials’ custody in two weeks after a rush of unlawful border crossings severely strained holding facilities.Roderick Kise, a spokesperson for the border patrol’s parent agency, Customs and Border Protection, said he could not comment beyond an initial statement because the death remained under investigation. In that statement, Kise’s agency said the girl experienced “a medical emergency” at a station in Harlingen, Texas, and died later that day at a hospital.Alvarez Benedicks, 35, said she, her husband and three children, aged 14, 12 and eight, crossed the border to Brownsville, Texas, on 9 May. After a doctor diagnosed the eight-year-old, Anadith Tanay Reyes Alvarez, with influenza, the family was sent to the Harlingen station on 14 May. It was unclear why the family was held so long.Anadith woke up her first day in the Harlingen station with a fever and had a headache, according to her mother, who said the station was dusty and smelled of urine.When she reported her daughter’s bone pain to an agent, she said he responded: “Oh, your daughter is growing up. That’s why her bones hurt. Give her water.”“I just looked at him,” Alvarez Benedicks said. “How would he know what to do if he’s not a doctor?”She said a doctor told her the pain was flu-related. She asked for an ambulance to take her daughter to the hospital for breathing difficulties but was denied.“I felt like they didn’t believe me,” she said.Anadith received saline fluids, a shower and fever medication to reduce her temperature, but her breathing problems persisted, her mother said, adding that a sore throat prevented her from eating and she stopped walking.At one point, a doctor asked the parents to return if Anadith fainted, Alvarez Benedicks said. Their request for an ambulance was denied again when her blood pressure was checked on Wednesday.An ambulance was called later that day after Anadith went limp and unconscious and blood came out of her mouth, her mother said. She insists her daughter had no vital signs in the border patrol station before leaving for the hospital.The family is staying at a McAllen, Texas, migrant shelter and seeking money to bring their daughter’s remains to New York City, their final destination in the US.Anadith, whose parents are Honduran, was born in Panama with congenital heart disease. She received surgery three years ago that her mother characterized as successful. It inspired Anadith to want to become a doctor.Her death came a week after a 17-year-old Honduran boy, Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza, died in US health and human services department custody. Maradiaga traveled alone.A rush to the border before Covid-19 asylum limits known as Title 42 expired brought extraordinary pressure. The border patrol took an average of 10,100 people into custody a day over four days last week, compared to a daily average of 5,200 in March.The border patrol had 28,717 people in custody on 10 May, one day before pandemic asylum restrictions expired, which was double from two weeks earlier, according to a court filing. By Sunday, the custody count dropped 23% to 22,259, still historically high.Custody capacity is about 17,000, according to a government document last year, and the administration has been adding temporary giant tents like one in San Diego that opened in January with room for about 500 people.On Sunday, the average time in custody was 77 hours. More

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      Vigilante fears as Texas Republicans push for special unit to detain migrants

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      A new Texas bill could soon establish a taskforce using civilians that would have the authority to “arrest, apprehend or detain persons crossing the Texas-Mexico border unlawfully”, raising concerns around state-sponsored vigilantism.House Bill 20, authored by Republican state representative Matt Schaefer, seeks to create a new “border protection unit” that would deter migrants from unlawfully entering Texas using non-deadly force. It could include civilians with prior military experience among its members – such as national guards or former border patrol agents – who would be granted some immunity from prosecution for actions they carried out as members of the force.The HB20 bill itself was killed last week in the Texas legislature but then quickly resurrected as HB7 – a slightly different amendment to existing immigration legislation. The proposed unit was renamed the “Texas border force” and put under the command of the Texas ranger division.With a Republican majority in both the state house and senate, the fresh bill seems likely to pass.Bernardo Cruz, an attorney for the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told the Guardian: “It’s really an unlawful action or exercise by the state government. We are really afraid it’s going to lead to more racial profiling of current migrants, and also that it affects everyone who lives across the border and the states.”Although immigration law and enforcement on the US border is under federal jurisdiction, border states like Texas argue they have the right to protect themselves if the federal government fails to do so, as per the “invasion” clause of the US constitution.Such a drastic move by a state to enforce federal immigration law is likely to end up in court.Schaefer, one of the Texas legislature’s most conservative members, said in a statement: “Enough is enough. If [Joe] Biden won’t defend this country, we will.”The news of the bill comes shortly after the expiration of Title 42, the pandemic-era policy that gave US officials authority to turn away migrants who came to the US-Mexico border claiming asylum in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19.Immigration and civil rights activists have condemned the legislation and said its potential passage was “disheartening”. These critics of the bill, such as the non-profit Human Rights Watch, say it will embolden state-sponsored vigilantism.Testifying in front of the Texas house state affairs committee in April, Bob Libal of Human Rights Watch said the border protection unit would lead to the “codification and expansion of a border policing, court and jailing system that has to date resulted in injuries, deaths, racial discrimination, abusive detention conditions, and a chilling effect on freedoms of association and expression.”The unit would be overseen by the Texas public safety department and would controversially give its officers broad authority to make arrests, build border barriers and search vehicles they deem suspicious.Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, told the Dallas Morning News that she was “appalled by this dangerous and unconstitutional proposal designed to violate federal law at the expense of the border community I call home”.She added: “Not only does this bill mobilize a new military force under the governor, it also allows the head of the force to deputize almost anyone to enforce federal immigration law, including vigilante groups that have targeted Texas border communities.”The ACLU’s Cruz said the unit would be an extension of Operation Lone Star, another state effort to secure the US border with Mexico, launched by the rightwing Republican governor, Greg Abbott, in March 2021.Operation Lone Star is a joint operation between the public safety department and the Texas national guard. It was established during an increase of migrants at the state’s border for which Abbott issued a disaster declaration.“Texas does not have the authority to enforce immigration law,” Cruz said. “There’s clear both federal law and supreme court precedent that establishes that the appropriate entity to enforce immigration laws in this country are federal law enforcement agencies.”Like Operation Lone Star, Cruz said the new border protection unit would lead to racial profiling.In a federal complaint filed in July last year, the Texas ACLU, along with the Texas Civil Rights Project, alleged state troopers excessively pull over Latinos as part of Operation Lone Star. The complaint also said at least 30 people were killed in state police car chases connected to Texas’s expansive border security operation.“We really afraid it’s going to lead to more racial profiling of migrants and also that it affects everyone who lives across the border and the states. There’s nothing in the language it just narrows it to specific area of Texas. So this really is an extremely broad attempt by the state of Texas, to really just militarize communities.“And that, of course, impacts everyone’s day-to-day life in a negative way.” More