Less than a month and a half out from the November midterms, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton still holds a narrow lead over his Democratic opponent, civil rights attorney Rochelle Garza, despite a criminal indictment for securities fraud hanging over him like the Dull Cheese Knife of Damocles.
In fact, Paxton’s favored to win, after easily dispatching his top GOP opponent, George P. Bush—whose father, Jeb!, left the mighty Bush dynasty gawping like a beached carp shortly after he entered the “Puppet Show and Jeb Bush” phase of his presidential campaign.
You’d think someone like Paxton, who’s been under criminal indictment for seven years, would 1) not be the top law enforcement official of one of the nation’s largest states; 2) assiduously avoid further (alleged) lawbreaking; and 3) not hook hitch his wagon to an oily manatee fart with his own demonstrated penchant for perfidy.
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But if the past several years have shown us anything, it’s that Republican politicians can be as criminal, corrupt, incompetent, and slovenly as they want, and if anything, their voters will reward them for it.
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A new Associated Press deep dive into Paxton’s AG office reveals a litany of serious problems that should give all Texas voters pause—even those who currently find themselves trapped in a weird personality cult led by a mediocre reality TV host.
Associated Press:
[A]s Paxton seeks to fend off legal troubles and win a third term as Texas’ top law enforcement official, his agency has come unmoored by disarray behind the scenes, with seasoned lawyers quitting over practices they say aim to slant legal work, reward loyalists and drum out dissent.
An Associated Press investigation found Paxton and his deputies have sought to turn cases to political advantage or push a broader political agenda, including staff screenings of a debunked film questioning the 2020 election. Adding to the unrest was the secretive firing of a Paxton supporter less than two months into his job as an agency advisor after he tried to make a point by displaying child pornography in a meeting.
Most alarmingly, the AP report notes that Paxton’s staff was recently forced to drop human trafficking and sexual assault cases because—no kidding—they misplaced one of the victims.
Eight people were indicted last year in a series of cases collectively referred to as “Operation Fallen Angel.” The indictments stemmed from allegations that the accused had forced teenage girls to “exchange sexual contact for crystal methamphetamine.” Six of the accused are now free because of the AG office’s errors, while one is being held on other charges and another died in jail.
“It’s absolutely broken. It’s just broken. You don’t do it this way,” Republican District Attorney Dusty Boyd, who handed the case over to Paxton’s office, told the AP. “I made the mistake of trusting them that they would come in and do a good job.”
Boyd claimed staff turnover in Paxton’s human trafficking unit contributed to the dysfunction, which led to four cases being dropped because they were “unable to locate the victim.”
“For Pete’s sake, you’re the AG’s office. You can’t find the victim?” said Boyd. “The culture is broken.”
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In addition, the AP report notes:
- A prosecutor quit in January after his supervisors tried to get him to withhold evidence in a murder case.
- Another attorney resigned in March, in part over “growing hostility toward LGBTQ employees.”
- In 2020, the FBI opened a criminal investigation into Paxton, over accusations that he’d abused his office to help a wealthy donor who’d employed a woman with whom Paxton had had an extramarital affair. Eight of Paxton’s top deputies quit or were fired after bringing the case to the FBI.
- After that mass exodus, Paxton hired an attorney who’d donated $10,000 to help him fight his overripe indictment, as well as a former ice cream company owner named Tom Kelly Gleason whose father contributed $50,000 to Paxton's legal defense fund.
- Gleason was fired less than two months after joining Paxton’s team because he displayed child sexual abuse videos during a work presentation. Three sources told the AP that “Gleason displayed the video—which one of them described as showing a man raping a small child—in a misguided effort to underscore agency investigators’ difficult work. It was met with outrage and caused the meeting to quickly dissolve.” One source noted that Paxton’s top deputy, Brent Webster, told other staff members not to talk about the incident.
- Another Paxton employee, Bill Turner, said he quit after he was asked not to turn over evidence to the defense in a murder prosecution. “We had a difference of opinion on the ethical obligations of a prosecutor and I didn’t feel like I could continue working in that environment,” said Turner.
- Paxton has also been accused of abusing his office for his own political benefit. In a resignation letter, Assistant Attorney General Jason Scully-Clemmons accused the AG’s office of “directing prosecutors to prioritize political considerations.” Other sources the AP talked to said that prior to the March primaries, Amber Platt, another Paxton deputy, “convened a meeting to ask about upcoming cases that would help Paxton’s reelection prospects.”
- In May, Jonathan White, chief of the election fraud section of the AG’s Special Prosecutions Division, invited his employees to a screening of 2000 Mules, convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza’s goofy film that elevates thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Astute readers will recall that Paxton himself aided Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn a free and fair election, filing a risible “equal protection” case that the Supreme Court ultimately refused to consider.
Meanwhile, the office appears to be understaffed, with the number of assistant attorneys general in the criminal prosecutions division down more than 25% from two years ago. The group that deals with financial and white-collar crime was cut by more than half.
Oh, and Paxton has also been running away from process servers like a low-rent Josh Hawley.
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Sadly, that brimming barrel of bad deeds is unlikely to sway Texas voters, who, after all, have elected Sen. Ted Cruz twice. But that doesn’t mean he’s a shoo-in! The election is still close, and Garza could use the help if she’s going to roust this (alleged) lawbreaker from his roost.
Let’s do what we can to put this old steer out to pasture as he waits another eternity for justice to finally find him. If the law doesn’t punish him, maybe the voters finally will.
Click here to find out how you can help get out the vote in the Lonestar State, no matter where you are!
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