On Monday, the editorial board for the Houston Chronicle tore into Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for his ongoing failed efforts to prove election fraud in 2020.
Paxton, wrote the board, has lately taken to claiming that elections were rigged by George Soros — a Hungarian-born billionaire and Holocaust survivor who is often the target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
"Paxton evoked Soros in response to a Dec. 15 Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruling that the attorney general cannot unilaterally prosecute election fraud cases," noted the board. "The all-Republican court ruled 8-1 that the AG can only get involved in a case when a district or county attorney requests his assistance. If he barges in uninvited, the court ruled, he’s violating the separation of powers clause in the Texas Constitution. The court got it right. In response, Paxton took to Twitter, warning that 'Soros-funded district attorneys will have sole power to decide whether election fraud has occurred in Texas.'"
As the board noted, all of this started because Paxton tried to twist the law to usurp power from local elected attorneys.
READ MORE: Scandal-plagued Texas AG Ken Paxton releases his own report clearing himself of wrongdoing
"As Donald Trump’s loyal lap dog, he hops down from his master’s expanse long enough to trot after alleged cases of voter fraud, desperately seeking to validate the former president’s outlandish claims," wrote the board. "When the Jefferson County district attorney declined to prosecute newly elected sheriff Zena Stephens over campaign-finance allegations stemming from the 2016 election, Paxton rushed in to bring his own case. Except, knowing he was unlikely to get an indictment in Jefferson County, Paxton went shopping for a more favorable forum."
"Of course, those prosecutors might have better things to do in the jurisdictions they were elected to serve," the board added. "Or, you never know, they might be addled by George Soros. Whoever he was."
Paxton, who has been under indictment for an unrelated securities charge for years, is facing challenges from his own party, with Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush and Congressman Louie Gohmert both running to take over as AG.
You can read more here.
