Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who led the effort to get the Supreme Court to overturn the 2020 election for ex-President Donald Trump, is refusing to give the media the texts and emails he sent and received on Jan 6., the day he spoke at the D.C. Trump rally that led to the Capitol insurrection, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The attorney general’s office has also rejected the Chronicle’s and Dallas Morning News’ requests for his messages from Jan. 5 to Jan. 11., claiming that they were confidential attorney-client communications.
The Chronicle reports that it is now coordinating with the Dallas Morning News, the San Antonio Express-News, the Austin American-Statesman, ProPublica and the Texas Tribune to get ahold of the records.
Paxton’s lack of transparency raises questions surrounding his involvement in a rally heralding a cause that inspired a violent mob of Trump supporters to attack the Capitol. Besides withholding his communications regarding the event, the attorney general has refused to disclose who paid for his trip to D.C. and whether he spent taxpayer funds on it.
His troubles doesn’t end there: Paxton was also indicted in 2015 for alleged securities fraud, and several of his top aides have accused him of “improper influence, abuse of office, bribery and other potential criminal offenses.”
The embattled attorney general has denied that his sweeping Supreme Court lawsuit that sought to throw out millions of votes in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan-the states that went to Joe Biden-was a corrupt bid to get a pardon from Trump.
