AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to temporarily halt state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s scheduled testimony in a whistleblower lawsuit that was at the heart of the impeachment charges brought against him in 2023, delaying what could have been the Republican’s first sworn statements on corruption allegations.

Paxton had urged the all-Republican court to block his deposition scheduled for Thursday morning, and the court agreed to stop the meeting while it considers the merits of his request. The court gave attorneys for a group of former aides suing Paxton until Feb. 29 to present arguments on why the deposition should proceed at a later date.

The former aides allege they were improperly fired for bringing to the FBI allegations that Paxton was misusing his office to protect a friend and campaign donor, who in turn, they said, was helping the attorney general to conceal an extramarital affair. The accusations were included in the impeachment charges brought against Paxton last year. He was ultimately acquitted after a Senate trial.

That trial was essentially a political affair, however, not a criminal case or civil lawsuit, and the former deputies have pressed on with their case. In response, a state district judge ordered Paxton to sit for a deposition.

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