officially voting to impeach state attorney general, ken paxton. under state law, he s now temporarily suspended from his duties as he now awaits a senate trial. some of the counts included bribery, obstruction of justice, dereliction of duty, and fitness for office, abuse of public trust. this follows years of legal and ethical struggles and most controversial a.g.. texans called the most of the top texas republicans have been now mont the tub lick. with us now, nbc news correspondent priscilla thompson. priscilla, this is historic. what more can you tell us? alicia, it is historic. there have been supporters of ken paxton who flooded to the gallery today to listen as this hearing took place, and as they were letting out we were able to grab mr. here. you re a supporter of ken paxton, your reaction here is that the house is willing to impeach him. i was surprised about having to i think this proceeding is illegal. we ll get a statute in 1993 that is essential
is the witness who vice chair liz cheney name checked at the end of one of those recent investigative hearings, which was itself a powerful move because there s rangling that goes on over time, so tub lick publicly calling out a witness is a last resort, but that s what congresswoman liz cheney did to name and shame a trump white house lawyer who she said was not fully cooperating at the time. you probably heard his name, pat cipollone. he had talked to the committee once, so he was not total by defying them like steve bannon or peter navarro. he didn t get to the point of recommending a contempt citation but at the same time he had not agreed to testify under oath. so cheney led that public charge, which we then learned was the prelude to a subpoena, and this all worked, and fast. now cipollone will be testifying tomorrow under oath on camera in the main format the committees use because you ve probably seen clips of the video depositions as they explore issues and build u
it s upended the case, upended the week, and we have put together a new video crash course of what s been going down, and why it matters. take a look. video recorded statements to prosecutors have leaked. this sort of evidence is basically how prosecutors are going to tear down trump s defense piece by piece. that is a devastating blow for the former president. sharply incriminating information. he said the boss is not going to leave under any circumstances. the only time you want to hear somebody say the boss is not going to leave is after if third encore of a bruce springsteen concert right before the opening notes of thunder road. surprising? no. unhappy? yes. i m not happy you and your colleague got to do the story. all his instincts told him he was defrauded, that the the election was a big fraud. making sure that everyone that is involved in the criminal enterprise is held responsible. there was a big shouting match in which rudy called me every name
incredible hard work. yet that work pales to the strength it took to come here and be public. you could have stayed silent. you could have avoided the scrutiny, the pain and i will say watching you testify this morning, you can see the pain in each of you sharing that story. that courage that you demonstrated by going tub lick, by reporting this abuse, by shining a light, that courage matters and it s making a difference in the lives of others. the system failed you. what happened to you was grotesque, it was criminal, it was abusive. it was evil. i m the father of two little girls who are both athletes. not at the level of each of you but what you experience is every parent s nightmare that when your child, when you entrust your child to coaches, doctors
0 job is to protect are getting away with this? this is not justice. enough is enough. i ask you to hear my voice. please doe all that is in your power to ensure these individuals are held responsible and accountable for ignoring my initial report. for lying about my initial report and for covering up for a child molester. in closing, i would like to express my deep gratitude to the united states senate a very power institution that from the very beginning has fought for us rather than against us. thank you. i welcome any questions. thank you. miss nickols. thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. i want to thank you for your commitment to pry tortizing athlete safety. i was named as gymnast two and previously identified by athlete a. this did not happen to gymnast two or athlete a. it happened to me, maggie nick nichols. i was elite level gymnast by the age of 13. by the time i was 14, i made the national team. i traveled internationally for four years and in 2015 at the