Texas’ top attorney, Ken Paxton, made a mad dash to his truck Monday with his wife at the wheel after a process server attempted to hand him two subpoenas, the Texas Tribune reports.
According to court records, process server Ernesto Martin Herrera was forced to leave documents for the Texas attorney general on the ground after Paxton ran from inside his garage to a waiting truck inside which his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, was in the driver’s seat.
The two subpoenas “to appear and testify at a hearing or trial” in court on Tuesday were both addressed to Paxton: one in his official capacity and another as an individual. The lawsuit was filed by Fund Texas Choice, a nonprofit helping to fund Texans who need to travel for abortions.
RELATED STORY: Transgender teen left shaken after Texas officials question him at his middle school
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According to the sworn affidavit, Herrera said that when he knocked on the door, he was told by the Angela Paxton that her husband was on the phone. Herrera offered to wait but was told the attorney general was “in a hurry to leave,” so the server left his card with Angela Paxton. It was then he spotted a black Chevrolet truck parked in the driveway. Then another truck pulled up—a black Tahoe. That’s when the garage door opened, and the attorney general walked to the waiting Tahoe, but when Herrera approached him, Paxton “ran back inside the house,” the affidavit reads.
The document adds that about 20 minutes later, Angela Paxton emerged from the home, opened the driver’s side door and the rear door behind the driver's side of the Chevrolet truck, got inside, and started the truck, leaving the rear door open.
“A few minutes later, Mr. Paxton RAN from the door inside the garage toward the rear door behind the driver's side,” the affidavit reads. Herrera adds that he approached the truck and yelled Paxton’s name but was “ignored.” After realizing Paxton was not going to take the subpoena, Herrera says he ended up leaving the two documents on the ground beside the truck, and the Paxtons pulled away, leaving the subpoenas.
In a tweet posted to Paxton’s page later in the day, the attorney general wrote:
“It’s clear that the media wants to drum up another controversy involving my work as Attorney General, so they’re attacking me for having the audacity to avoid a stranger lingering outside my home and showing concern about the safety and well-being of my family.”
Although Paxton claimed in the tweet to fear for his life and that of his family, he never called the police and apparently had no qualms about sending his wife outside to face this allegedly dangerous situation.
Paxton has been at the center of some of the state’s most divisive anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, particularly around the issue of transgender youth.
It was Paxton who first suggested that health care, such as hormone therapy, “legally constitutes" child abuse under “several provisions” of Texas state law. “I’ll do everything I can to protect against those who take advantage of and harm young Texans,” Paxton said in a news release about his nonbinding legal opinion—which led Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to send the dogs after transgender youth and their families.
Paxton additionally led 11 GOP attorneys general to file amicus briefs in support of former President Donald Trump’s legal war amid a raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate by the FBI, the Washington Examiner reports.
In a statement about the FBI raid, Paxton wrote:
Joe Biden’s commitment to weaponizing the DOJ to go after political opponents should deeply concern all Americans ... Given Biden’s track record, combined with his rhetoric demonizing anyone he disagrees with, the courts must be on high alert to the ways in which DOJ may abuse its power to punish President Donald Trump. At a bare minimum, the Eleventh Circuit should ensure that any privileged information taken from President Trump is returned and the special master stays in place.
According to the Texas Tribune, for the last seven years, Paxton has been “under indictment for securities fraud” and “faces a whistleblower lawsuit” after two ex-deputies alleged abuse of his role. Paxton has maintained his innocence.
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