Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday appointed former Secretary of State John Scott to temporarily serve as attorney general after the state House of Representatives impeached Ken Paxton.
“John Scott has the background and experience needed to step in as a short-term interim Attorney General during the time the Attorney General has been suspended from duty,” Abbott said in a statement Wednesday. “His decades of experience and expertise in litigation will help guide him while serving as the state’s top law enforcement officer.”
The Republican governor made the interim appointment days after the state’s GOP-controlled House of Representatives voted 121-23 to impeach Paxton — with 60 of its 85 Republican members, including House Speaker Dade Phelan supporting his suspension on charges that include bribery and misuse of office.
Paxton has been under FBI investigation for years on allegations that he abused his office to help a donor. He is also awaiting trial on an indictment for state securities fraud charges from 2015.
Paxton, who has denied any wrongdoing, called the impeachment proceedings a “politically motivated sham” in a statement on Saturday.
The state’s lower chamber has delivered articles of impeachment to the Texas Senate, which will hold a trial to decide whether he should be permanently removed from office. That trial is expected to begin no later than Aug. 28, with a jury that could include his wife, Sen. Angela Paxton.
Abbott — who did not refer to Paxton by name or comment on the impeachment in his Wednesday statement appointing Scott — touted his interim appointee’s record as an attorney, saying that Scott has “handled cases at all levels of the justice system.”
Scott, who was appointed by Abbott as secretary of state in late 2021, resigned from that post last year after overseeing the 2022 midterms as the top elections officials and presiding over an audit of the state’s 2020 election results.
Scott previously served as deputy attorney general for civil litigation when Abbott held the role of the state’s top lawyer. Scott was also once appointed the state Health and Human Services Commission’s chief operating officer.
Paxton, a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump who was first elected as Texas’ attorney general in 2014, led a failed legal effort to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in four battleground states in 2020. He also backed Trump when the former president launched his White House re-election bid last year.
Trump defended Paxton in a post on his social media website Truth Social over the weekend, suggesting the proceedings against him were a form of election interference and a “very unfair process.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
