PERSON: Ken Paxton

State of Texas

Attorney General

Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. (born December 23, 1962) is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the attorney general of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Texas Senate representing the eighth district and as a member of the Texas House of Representatives.

Paxton rose to power as an ally of the Tea Party movement and has been described as an ultraconservative or far-right politician. As attorney general, Paxton has appointed prominent opponents of LGBT rights to leading positions within his department. In June 2022, Paxton said he would defend state laws prohibiting consensual same-sex relationships if the Supreme Court precedent invalidating such laws, the Lawrence v. Texas decision, was overturned. He has sued President Joe Biden’s administration nearly 50 times. He supports a near-total ban on abortion access. After Biden won the 2020 U.S. presidential election and Donald Trump refused to concede while making claims of election fraud, Paxton aided Trump in his efforts to overturn the result. He filed the unsuccessful Texas v. Pennsylvania case in the U.S. Supreme Court and spoke at the rally Trump held on January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C., that immediately preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Paxton was indicted in 2015 on state securities fraud charges relating to activities prior to taking office; he has pleaded not guilty. The case was delayed over various procedural issues, but in October 2023 his trial was scheduled for April 2024. In October 2020, several high-level assistants in Paxton’s office accused him of “bribery, abuse of office and other crimes.” Paxton was impeached with bipartisan approval in May 2023 by the Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives by a vote of 121–23, leading to his suspension. The articles of impeachment included allegations that Paxton gave preferential treatment to a political donor who bribed him, misapplied public resources and made false statements against whistleblowers, obstructed justice in the securities fraud trial against him, and made false statements regarding his financial interests. In September 2023, the Texas Senate voted to acquit Paxton of all articles of impeachment, ending his suspension from office. Paxton is separately being investigated by federal prosecutors for the same legal issues on coinciding federal statutes.

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