Yesterday, the head of the Travis County District Attorney public integrity and complex crimes unit determined that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton violated the Texas Public Information Act (TPIA, the Texas version of the federal Freedom of Information Act) when he refused to turn over personal communications related to his appearance at the January 6th rally immediately preceding the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.
Back in March of last year, a number of Texas news organizations (the Austin American-Statesman, Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Houston Chronicle, and San Antonio Express-News) submitted a TPIA request for Paxton’s emails and text messages (which fall under the TPIA) around the time of January 6th. The journalists were also attempting to ascertain who paid for Paxton’s trip and whether public taxpayer funds were involved. Paxton’s wife Angela—who had previously worked as a guidance counselor at Legacy Christian Academy until she became a Texas Senator in 2019--accompanied him on the trip to Washington.
In response to this request, Paxton turned over some 500 pages of communications to and from his First Assistant AG, Brent Webster (who, along with Paxton, also signed the Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn legitimate election results in four other states). However, Paxton released none of his own communications, which he claims are all subject to attorney-client privilege. The newspapers say that the Attorney General’s office—which is charged with enforcing the TPIA—itself has no policy on the retention of work-related records kept on personal devices or accounts.
For now, the District Attorney has sent Paxton a letter of warning and giving him four days to “cure this violation” before they take him to court. So, Paxton can simply choose to turn over the requested records and avoid litigation. Paxton, of course, has denied any wrongdoing.
Bill Aleshire, an Austin attorney and expert on open record laws had this to say:
When the public official responsible for enforcing public records laws violates those laws himself, it puts a dagger in the heart of transparency at every level in Texas, Why should other Texas officials be transparent with public information if the AG himself is not?