Texas AG expects state bar to sue over election challenge
DALLAS — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Friday that the state bar association plans to sue him over his failed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election based on bogus claims of fraud.
Since last summer, the State Bar of Texas has been investigating complaints over Paxton's petitioning of the U.S. Supreme Court to block President Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump.
The group has not publicly filed a suit against Paxton, but it asked an Austin-area court Friday to impose unspecified discipline on a member of his staff for alleged professional misconduct in the election suit.
Paxton's top deputy, Brent Webster, was “dishonest” and made “false statements” in petitioning the Supreme Court to overturn the election, according to the bar's complaint to a Williamson County court. Webster did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Paxton said he stood behind his challenge to the “unconstitutional 2020 presidential election,” as he blasted the bar and announced an investigation into a charitable group associated with it.
“I am certain that the bar will not only lose but be fully exposed for what they are: a liberal activist group masquerading as a neutral professional association,” Paxton said on Twitter.
The bar, which is a branch of the Texas Supreme Court, said in a statement that “partisan political considerations play no role” in its actions.
State law prohibits it from discussing investigations unless a public complaint is filed and a spokesman declined to comment.
In bringing a court action against an attorney, the bar can seek punishment ranging from a written admonition to suspension or disbarment.
The bar complaints against Paxton alleged that his petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the 2020 election was frivolous and unethical.
The high court threw out the case and Trump's own Justice Department found no evidence of fraud that could have changed the election's outcome.
Shortly after saying the bar plans to sue him, Paxton's office announced that it will be investigating the Texas Bar Foundation for “its possibly aiding and abetting the mass influx of illegal aliens.” The charitable group's board is partially appointed by the bar president.
In a one-page letter the attorney general's office said the foundation has been “knowingly giving donations to entities that encourage, participate in, and fund illegal immigration at the Texas-Mexico border.”
The Texas Bar Foundation chair-elect, Alistair Dawson, said in a statement that said she was "extremely disappointed" to learn of Paxton's investigation but will nonetheless cooperate.
Gary Ratner, an attorney with Lawyers Defending American Democracy, which brought one of the complaints against Paxton, declined to comment. Kevin Moran, a Democratic Party activist in Galveston, who brought another, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.