State Sen. Drew Springer, a Republican who originally voted to acquit Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in his impeachment trial, is now asking the Texas Senate to reopen the case.
The retiring lawmaker made the request in a letter to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Thursday, days after Paxton said he would not contest facts of a whistleblower lawsuit against him.
“Basically, Paxton is saying he would accept any judgment against him in this whistleblower’s case,” said Matthew Watkins, managing editor for news and politics at the Texas Tribune. “Springer is concerned about this and asked Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, whether there’s any way to kind of relook at the case where they voted to acquit him last year.”
However it’s unclear whether that would be an option.
“There’s no precedent for this, right? The House could, I guess, conceivably impeach him again,” Watkins said. “But he has already been acquitted. And you’d have to kind of start this whole process all over again, which, we know that Donald Trump has been impeached multiple times, but not on the same kind of alleged offense. So just a really highly unusual and kind of a stunning letter to see.”
Hear more stories from the week in Texas politics in the audio player above.
