After a long and controversial trial in the Senate, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has been acquitted of all charges.
In May, Paxton was suspended from his duties after the GOP-controlled House voted 121-23 to impeach him. The 16 impeachment articles that Paxton was accused of include bribery, corruption and misconduct.
The Senate, led by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (R), spent nearly eight hours deliberating the controversial and criticized verdict.
Outside of the 30 senators at the trial was Paxton’s wife, State Senator Angela Paxton (R). Sen. Paxton was not allowed to vote in the trial, but she was in attendance throughout the entire two weeks of the unprecedented trial.
During the entirety of the trial, Paxton maintained his innocence. After the verdict, Paxton reiterated this idea while maligning the motives of those who brought the impeachment charges against him.
Despite being acquitted of the 16 charges, the attorney general still faces a bevy of charges from a separate investigation by the FBI.
In other news, after Alabama lawmakers refused to redraw congressional lines to create a new second district for black Alabama voters in which they would come close to comprising a majority, Federal judges have taken the matter into their own hands.
Deuel Ross, an NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorney who stated his case before the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), gave his thoughts on the ruling.
“The court has once again confirmed that Black voters deserve two opportunity districts. We look forward to ensuring that the special master draws a map that provides Black voters with the full representation in Congress that they deserve.”
After SCOTUS ruled that Alabama’s one district violated the U.S. Constitution, the state legislators drew a new map that did not meet the requirements creating a second district in a state that has a black population of 27%.
Despite Alabama arguing that the maps were not in violation of the Constitution, the judges struck down the state’s rewritten maps as they viewed them to be insufficient.
