DALLAS (AP) – Texas State Attorney’s Office sued on Wednesday to punish state Attorney General Ken Paxton for his failed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election based on false allegations of fraud. poses a new legal danger to the Republican the day after he secured his party nomination for a third term.
The state’s attorney asked a Dallas area court to impose unspecified discipline on the state’s attorney general, alleging that Paxton’s request to the U.S. Supreme Court to block President Biden’s victory was “dishonest.” The formal indictment of professional misconduct makes Paxton one of the highest-profile lawyers facing a potential threat to his legal license to participate in former President Trump’s effort to delegitimize his defeat.
The petition to a Collin County court came the day after Paxton defeated Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush in a second round of Republican elections. This victory prepares him for a general election contest with Rochelle Garza, a South Texas Democrat and civil rights lawyer, as Paxton also faces trial for long-delayed state fraud charges and a separate investigation. ‘FBI motivated by criminal allegations by the attorney general. own staff.
One of Paxton’s lawyers, Philip Hilder, declined to comment.
The lawyer has been investigating complaints about Paxton’s election lawsuit since last summer and opened a similar disciplinary proceeding against his deputy chief in early May. Paxton predicted this month that the lawyer would try to discipline him, denounced him as “a liberal activist group” and said he was behind his challenge in the “unconstitutional 2020 presidential election”.
A spokesman for the bar, which is a branch of the Texas Supreme Court, declined to comment. The group said earlier that “partisan political considerations play no role” in its actions.
When filing a lawsuit against a lawyer, the lawyer can ask for punishments ranging from a written warning to a suspension or disqualification. The disciplinary process resembles a trial and could include both parties obtaining testimony and obtaining records through the discovery.
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The lawyer’s lawsuit against Paxton alleges that he “distorted” the facts before the Supreme Court in a lawsuit to overturn Biden’s victory. The suit was backed by Trump. The high court dismissed the lawsuit and the Trump Justice Department found no evidence of fraud that could have changed the outcome of the election.
Before winning the nomination on Tuesday, Paxton posed an unusual number of major challenges after eight of his top deputies told the FBI in 2020 that the attorney general had been using his office to benefit a wealthy donor. The eight, who eventually resigned or were fired, accused him of bribery, abuse of office and other crimes that led to an ongoing federal investigation.
Paxton has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty separately in a 2015 state-of-the-art fraud case.