Government

TX AG Ken Paxton Launches Bogus Investigation Of State Bar, Still Winds Up With Ethics Lawsuit

Undead zombie AG strikes again.

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Ken Paxton

It’s been a mixed week for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. On the one hand, he crushed his primary opponent, Land Commissioner George P. Bush, in the Republican runoff. On the other hand, the State Bar of Texas filed a disciplinary suit against him for his role in the effort to overturn the election. And they don’t throw you a fun election night party for that second one.

The Bar’s law suit wasn’t exactly unexpected — it sued his First Assistant Brent Webster three weeks ago alleging that he’d violated the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct by participating in the doomed Supreme Court petition to block certification of the electoral votes from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, and Wisconsin, handing Trump another four years as president.

The complaints against Paxton and his deputy are virtually identical, alleging that both men made misrepresentations to the Court when they said that:

1) an outcome determinative number of votes were tied to unregistered voters; 2) votes were switched by a glitch with Dominion voting machines; 3) state actors “unconstitutionally revised their state’s election statutes;” and 4) “illegal votes” had been cast that affected the outcome of the election.

Calling these statements “dishonest,” the Bar says the “allegations were not supported by any charge, indictment, judicial finding, and/or credible or admissible evidence, and failed to disclose to the Court that some of his representations and allegations had already been adjudicated and/or dismissed in a court of law.”

And when Paxton and Webster said they’d “uncovered substantial evidence… that raises serious doubts as to the integrity of the election process in Defendant States,” they were simply lying, because they hadn’t. Which violates Texas Disciplinary Rule of Professional Conduct 8.04(a)(3)’s mandate that “A lawyer shall not engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.”

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But Ken Paxton didn’t survive a securities fraud indictment and allegations by his own staff that he took bribes by playing nice. Last week when it became clear that the Bar was going to come after him, he fired off an absolutely batshit tweet calling the State Bar a “liberal activist group masquerading as a neutral professional organization” and threatening to “see you and the leftists that control you in court.”

Then his office launched an investigation into the Texas Bar Foundation for “possibly aiding and abetting the mass influx of illegal aliens.”

“Our office has recently received complaints concerning the activities of the Texas Bar Foundation, alleging that the Texas Bar Foundation is knowingly giving donations to entities that encourage, participate in, and fund illegal immigration at the Texas-Mexico border,” the Texas AG’s Senior Attorney for Charitable Trusts wrote in a letter to the Foundation, alluding vaguely to a possible “improper use of charitable funds such that funds are diverted from their intended purpose” and demanding information on ten years of “grants to immigration related charitable programs and organizations.”

Because no one ever accused Ken Paxton of being subtle.

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Reached by the Texas Tribune, retired attorney Neil Kay Cohen, one of the many people who filed a bar complaint against Paxton, was measured in his response.

“I’m not sure what it matters,” Cohen told the Tribune. “Paxton’s in a lot of trouble already. If the worst that can happen to him is getting disbarred, well, compared to going to jail for obstructing a criminal investigation or for stock fraud, the penalties should be super embarrassing but the penalties are slight compared to the criminal things.”

The Austin American-Statesman reports that, although Paxton’s case was filed in Collins County, it has been assigned to state District Judge Casey Blair, in neighboring Kaufman County. Judge Blair, who describes himself on his Facebook page as a “Conservative Republican,” will adjudicate the Bar’s request “that a judgment of professional misconduct be entered against Respondent, and that this Honorable Court determine and impose an appropriate sanction.”

But whatever happens, the real winner here is former Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins, an experienced appellate lawyer, who refused to put his name on Paxton’s patently bad faith lawsuit and saved himself winding up on the sharp end of a Bar complaint. Hawkins noped right out for private practice in February of 2021, just two months after Paxton’s SCOTUS LOLsuit was filed. So, big round of applause for that guy!

Texas state bar sues AG Ken Paxton over bid to overturn Donald Trump’s election defeat [Austin American-Statesman]
Texas state bar files professional misconduct lawsuit against Ken Paxton for attempt to overturn 2020 presidential elections [Texas Tribune]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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