The Texas Senate on Wednesday night adopted the rules for the impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The trial begins Sept. 5 and Senators, serving as jurors and arbiters of how the trial is conducted, will decide if Paxton should be removed from office and disqualified from holding future elected positions in Texas.

Paxton’s wife, Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, is barred from serving as a juror on the trial, according the rules. But she will still count toward the two-thirds threshold needed in order to convict Paxton on any of the 20 articles of impeachment that accuse him of several abuses, including bribery, obstruction of justice and abuse of the public trust over a stretch of several years.

Had she not been counted, a verdict removing him from office would have required 20 senators out of 30. Now, 21 are needed.

The rules also addressed conflicts of interest, gag orders, witnesses, cross examination and time limits.

Ken Paxton, 60, has called the impeachment proceedings a sham and an attempt to overthrow the will of voters who reelected the third-term Republican in November.

Tony Buzbee, one of the attorneys representing Paxton during the proceedings, said in a statement Thursday, “we look forward to proving every count of this sham impeachment is baseless.”

Paxton has spent much of the past decade fending off allegations of wrongdoing, which he has denied. Here’s what we know about his latest legal troubles.

Why was Ken Paxton impeached?

The GOP-led House voted to impeach Paxton after an investigative committee looked into allegations that Paxton improperly used his office’s resources to help real estate developer and campaign donor Nate Paul on multiple occasions throughout 2020.

The depth of the men’s connection is not fully known. In 2018, Paul contributed $25,000 to Paxton’s re-election campaign.

While Paul was under a federal investigation, Paxton began personally steering the agency to intervene in matters benefiting the real estate developer, investigators said.

The examples described in the impeachment articles include Paxton marshaling agency resources to aid Paul’s businesses in a legal conflict with a charitable foundation in the spring of that year and issuing a rushed opinion that Paul’s team used to fight a dozen foreclosures over that summer, investigators said.

Meanwhile, evidence supports allegations that Paul helped remodel the kitchen in Paxton’s Austin home and secured a job for a woman with whom Paxton was allegedly having an affair, the investigators said.

Paxton’s intervention into efforts to help Paul through the agency raised alarm bells among his senior-most aides, who were fired when they reported their concerns, investigators said. The attorney general has repeatedly denied wrongdoing of these accusations.

What prompted the impeachment proceedings?

A House ethics investigation began in March, around the time Paxton asked the Legislature to fund a $3.3 million settlement with a group of whistleblowers.

In 2020, four former employees sued saying that Paxton retaliated against them after they accused him of abusing his office to help Paul.

Their complaint painted a picture of an attorney general so determined to help Paul that plaintiffs said he repeatedly defied and eventually denigrated his own-hand picked staff.

Paxton’s agency filed its formal response to the lawsuit that denied that the attorney general fired these employees because they raised concerns about his conduct. Paxton took these actions, his lawyers wrote, due to their “own misconduct, lack of competence, and/or disloyalty to the Office.”

The plaintiffs in the case were Mark Penley, a former Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice; Ryan Vassar, a former Deputy AG for Legal Counsel; James “Blake” Brickman, former Deputy AG for Policy and Strategic Initiatives; and David Maxwell, former Director of Law Enforcement.

Why is the Legislature involved?

The $3.3 million settlement reached with the whistleblowers was contingent on state funding.

Any settlement amount over $250,000 must be specifically appropriated in the state budget for the purpose of paying the settlement, officials have said.

Lawmakers write the state’s two-year budget.

Paxton told lawmakers paying the settlement would avoid costly litigation that could drag on for years. But House Speaker Dade Phelan publicly opposed the payment, saying it is not a proper use of taxpayer funds. The Legislature is poised to block the funding and any other whistleblower claims by the agency.

Meanwhile, lawyers for the whistleblowers have said they did not agree to wait in perpetuity for legislative approval of settlement funds. If funding is denied, the case could return to court.

What about Paxton’s criminal case?

In summer 2015, Paxton was indicted on fraud charges but the case has been mostly stalled until last week.

That year a Collin County grand jury indicted him for allegedly persuading friends to invest in a McKinney technology company called Servergy Inc. without telling them he received 100,000 shares of stock. Paxton was also indicted for allegedly funneling clients to a friend’s investment firm without being registered with the state.

He was booked on two first-degree felony fraud charges for the Servergy issue, and one third-degree felony for the failure to register, and released on bond.

Last week, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Paxton’s case will be tried in Harris over Collin County, where the attorney general has close ties.

If convicted, Paxton could face two to 10 years in prison for the third-degree felony and five to 99 years for each of the first-degree felonies, as well as fines.

What about the FBI?

In late 2020, the FBI opened an investigation into the employees’ allegations that Paxton broke the law in trying to help Paul, the Associated Press reported.

In February, the Justice Department officials in Washington took over the corruption investigation into Paxton from federal prosecutors in Texas, who had been leading the probe, according to the Associated Press.

No federal charges have been filed against Paxton.

What happened to the campaign donor?

Paul, the real estate developer at the center of the impeachment allegations, was arrested June 8 and faces multiple federal felonies related to alleged financial crimes.

He was indicted on eight felony counts of making false statements to mortgage lenders and credit unions to secure loans for his businesses, according to a 23-page federal indictment.

The alleged crimes in the indictment date to 2017 and 2018. The lenders were based in Ireland, New York, Connecticut and Texas, according to the indictment.

What happens next?

The Texas Constitution gives state lawmakers the power to impeach and remove from office certain judges and elected officials, including the attorney general.

The Senate must hold a trial by Aug. 28, and two-thirds of the senators must approve removing Paxton from office.

The regular legislative session ended late last month.

The Senate may continue “as a court of impeachment” beyond the end of the session, or it can adjourn as set a future date to hold those proceedings, according to state law. That chamber also must meet additional benchmarks to come back into session if it already adjourned.

Only two officials have been impeached and removed from office throughout Texas history, the most recent of which was nearly 50 years ago.