Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was already struggling with a variety of serious controversies — the Republican is under indictment and members of his own team have made multiple criminal allegations against him — when things took a weird turn last week.
A process server arrived at Paxton’s home to hand him a subpoena for a federal court hearing. The state attorney general hid in his home before ultimately fleeing his house and running into a truck. When the story reached the public, Paxton tried to argue that he was avoiding a “stranger lingering outside” his home and fled for his safety. That version of events didn’t really make sense.
So whatever happened with this case? NBC News reported on yesterday’s court developments.
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton must testify in an abortion lawsuit just a week after a court filing said he fled his home to avoid a subpoena seeking his appearance at a hearing in the case. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ordered Paxton, a Republican, to testify in a suit that seeks to block state prosecutors from going after abortion providers for offering financial and other aid to Texans seeking abortion services out of state.
Evidently, the judge in this case was originally inclined to grant Paxton’s request to quash the subpoena, but Pitman changed his mind when the state attorney general went to great lengths to avoid being served.
Paxton probably should’ve just answered the door when the process server knocked.
All of this coincides with a brutal investigative report from The Associated Press, published last week, that highlighted the extraordinary dysfunction burdening Paxton’s office.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s staff this month quietly dropped a series of human trafficking and child sexual assault cases after losing track of one of the victims, a stumble in open court emblematic of broader dysfunction inside one of America’s most prominent law offices. … [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.
The same AP report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, found Paxton and his deputies have also sought to “turn cases to political advantage or push a broader political agenda.”
Republicans looking for evidence of politicized law enforcement shouldn’t be looking at the FBI; they should be looking at Austin.
As Paxton’s scandals mounted, and FBI agents arrived at Paxton’s door, I imagine there were some in his party who looked for an overly generous defense. Sure, these folks might’ve argued, it’s not great to have a state attorney general who’s also suspected of being a criminal, but the controversies shouldn’t necessarily detract from his overall record.
But therein lies the rub: Paxton appears to be pretty bad at his job.
