State bar complaint proceeds against Texas AG who sought to overturn election — as he enters runoff: report
On Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle reported that a legal ethics complaint against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is advancing with the state bar — and appears to be gathering steam.
"The complaint was filed in July 2021 by the nonprofit Lawyers Defending American Democracy and 16 Texas lawyers, including four former presidents of the state Bar," reported Taylor Goldenstein. "It alleges that Paxton committed professional misconduct when he filed the December 2020 suit before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to overturn the presidential election results in four battleground states. The complainants say the suit was frivolous, knowingly false and deceitful."
"The deadline for a decision on whether there is just cause to move forward, prescribed by the Texas Rules of Disciplinary Procedure, was Sunday, and the complainants have not been notified of a dismissal," continued the report. "'This is a big step because this rarely happens,' said Jim Harrington, one of the Texas lawyers who joined the complaint and a retired founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project, a nonprofit that advocates for voting rights. 'I just know from being a lawyer for 50 years, this is very rare.'"
Paxton, who headed up the political group Lawyers for Trump, filed the highly unusual suit in November to try to get the Supreme Court to block the election results in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, and rule that these states had "unlawful and constitutionally tainted votes" as a result of expanding mail-in ballot access during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Supreme Court threw out this suit.
All of this comes as Paxton, who separately faces indictment for stock fraud and an FBI investigation for allegations of official misconduct and retaliation, has been forced into a primary runoff with state land commissioner George P. Bush, nephew of former President George W. Bush.
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