Politics

Texas AG’s Impeachment Could Come Down to His State Senator Wife

CONFLICT OF INTEREST?

“If it were a trial in the justice system, she would be completely required to (step aside).”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton flanked by his wife, State Senator Angela Paxton
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Angela Paxton has found herself in an extraordinary situation. Her husband, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, faces an historic 20 articles of impeachment. As a state senator, Angela is set to vote on whether her husband stays or goes—and, despite the glaring conflict of interest, there’s no precedent to force her to step aside. “If it were a trial in the justice system, she would be completely required to (step aside),” Kenneth Williams, professor of criminal procedure at South Texas College of Law, told the Associated Press. The charges brought forth in Paxton’s articles of impeachment complicate matters. One is a bribery charge related to Ken’s extramarital affair, while another suggests Angela may have been involved when the couple allegedly spent $20,000 in political donations on countertops for their home. Angela has yet to disclose whether she’d recuse herself from voting on her husband’s impeachment, declining to answer a question from an Associated Press reporter on Monday.

Read it at Associated Press

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