TX AG Ken Paxton’s Allies Shower Supporters With Cash, Demand Recusal By His Enemies For ‘Bias’

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton may go down, but he’s going down swinging and throwing fistfuls of cash in the air.

Paxton, who has been dodging a securities fraud indictment for years, is under investigation by the FBI and facing potential disbarment for abusing his office to benefit real estate developer Nate Paul. None of this appeared to faze his fellow Lone Star Gippers, but being asked to approve a $3 million settlement to pay off whistleblowers in Paxton’s own office was too much for even those GOP stalwarts to bear. So in June, the Republican-led Texas House voted to impeach Paxton for an absolute orgy of corruption, sending the case to the state Senate, where a two-thirds vote to convict is needed to remove him from office.

Paxton’s billionaire backers haven’t been shy about putting their money where their mouth is — or about making it clear that they’ll use their cash to pay his supporters and punish his detractors.

“A vote to impeach @KenPaxtonTX is a decision to have a primary,” said former state rep Jonathan Strickland, head of the far-right Defend Texas Liberty PAC, in a May 27 tweet flagged by the Texas Tribune.

“Wait till you see my PAC budget,” he added.

The non-profit news outlet describes Defend Texas Liberty as “a key part of the constellation of political campaigns, institutions and dark-money groups that a trio of West Texas oil tycoons — Tim Dunn and brothers Farris and Dan Wilks — have pumped small fortunes into as part of a long-term crusade to push Texas to the extreme right.”

Until last month, Paxton was the largest beneficiary of the PAC’s largesse. But in the wake of the impeachment, it’s been raining cash down on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. As the Tribune reports, in June, the PAC gave Patrick $1 million outright, as well as a $2 million loan repayable in 2025, making up almost a quarter of his fundraising for the period. Patrick’s not up for reelection until 2026, but he is presiding over Paxton’s September 8 impeachment trial in his position as presiding officer of the state Senate. So it’s probably not a coincidence that the PAC, which has urged its supporters to agitate against the impeachment, is showering him with cash.

Meanwhile, Paxton moved to disqualify three Democratic senators from deliberating at his trial, claiming that they’re biased against him. Paxton’s attorneys, who include Judd Stone, the current Texas Solicitor General, as well as several members of the Attorney General’s office who took leave to represent him, demand that Senators Nathan Johnson, Roland Gutierrez, and José Menéndez be excluded because they don’t like Paxton. They argue that the appropriate standard is the same one which would be applied to jurors in a court of law, and point to statements going back to 2018 criticizing Paxton.

These statements all precede the July 17 gag order imposed by Patrick, except for one tweet from Sen. Johnson calling Patrick’s acceptance of the $3 million from the PAC “obscene.”

Ironically, Paxton’s lawyers are untroubled by Paxton’s longstanding relationship with his fellow Republican senators, or his $125,000 in outstanding campaign debt to Patrick himself. Not to mention the apparent bribe from Defenders of Liberty.

Now let’s see if Patrick sings for his supper and bars the three Democrats from deliberations.

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[Texas Tribune / Texas Tribune / Texas Tribune]

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