Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday faced sudden new risks to his political future as an investigative state House committee laid out an extraordinary public airing of scandal and alleged lawbreaking that has long trailed one of Texas’ top Republicans.

For more than two hours, investigators presented findings alleging that Paxton sought to hide an affair, misused his office to help a donor, skirted protocols “grossly outside” norms and built a culture of fear and retaliation in his office. Investigators told the GOP-led House General Investigative Committee that there was evidence that Paxton had committed multiple felonies and misdemeanors over the years, including misuse of official information, abuse of official capacity and retaliation.

The dramatic turn of events in the Texas Capitol unleashed a new test of Paxton’s durability in a way the conservative firebrand has not previously confronted despite a felony indictment in 2015 and an ongoing FBI investigation. The House committee’s investigation has been quietly going on for months and did not come to light until Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear how the House General Investigative Committee might act on the findings. The committee’s hearing began as Paxton sought legislative approval of more than $3 million in taxpayer dollars to a settle a whistleblower lawsuit with top aides who accused him of corruption. Republican House leaders have signaled unease with approving the payout. The legislative session ends Monday.

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But 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 unleased the impeachment push was Paxton’s relationship with 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 $200 million 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 Friday that the attorney general paid for all repairs and renovations.

Other charges, including lying to investigators, date back to Paxton’s still-pending securities fraud indictment.

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