Gov. Greg Abbott has appointed Angela Colmenero, his deputy chief of staff, to take over as the state’s interim attorney general as Ken Paxton remains suspended from office pending an impeachment trial in the Senate in September.
In late May, after the Texas House voted to impeach Paxton, Abbott appointed former interim Secretary of State John Scott to serve as interim attorney general. Scott, who had served as interim secretary for a little over a year, stepped down from that post in December to return to work in the private sector. On Monday, Scott announced he was stepping down as interim attorney general after a little over a month on the job.
Colmenero, who officially will take the reins as Texas’ leading law enforcement officer at 10 a.m. Friday, previously served under Abbott during part of his tenure as attorney general. Abbott served as attorney general from 2002 until he won the governor’s office in 2015.