GOP doesn’t rush to defend indicted Texas attorney general

Paxton earlier Monday was booked into the nearby Collin County jail on two counts of first-degree securities fraud and a lesser count of failing to register with state securities regulators.

The grand jury heard Paxton’s case presented by special prosecutors on Tuesday, including testimony from Texas Rangers investigating the allegations against Paxton. None have weighed in since a particular prosecutor informed The New York Occasions this weekend that Paxton has been indicted on three felony expenses. The Associated Press reported last month the connections between the startup and Paxton, who listed himself as a shareholder and whose name is among search terms that Servergy attorneys used to satisfy a federal subpoena.

“It’s complicated and delicate for an attorney general, more so than for a governor or a senator, because you are the top elected legal official in the state”, Jillson said. That charge, a third-degree felony, could bring two to 10 years in prison if convicted.

As the state’s top lawyer and law enforcement officer, Mr. Paxton has made headlines for challenging the Obama administration on its immigration and environmental policies and for encouraging county clerks to refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples on religious grounds after the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding same-sex marriage. Two Houston defense lawyers, Kent A. Schaffer and Brian Wice were tasked by a judge as the case’s district attorneys.

Ken Paxton was sworn in as attorney general on January 1.

It has taken a year, but one charge against Perry has been thrown out, and while another is still pending, it so far has proven only mildly detrimental to his campaign for president.

With a member of their leadership inner-circle apparently headed to surrender on charges from a felony indictment, Texas’ Republican leaders on Sunday continued their radio silence on the reported indictment of Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Paxton was fined $1,000 last year for investment advising without registering.

Initially, the adviser of Paxton said that the investigation being held in Collin County was politically motivated.

Reaction: Can Texas AG Paxton survive felony indictment? Arguably, the board should have referred the case immediately to prosecutors, but instead it was left to Texans for Public Justice to file the criminal complaint with the Public Integrity Unit.

But fellow Republicans haven’t been so publicly dismissive, especially now that Schaffer has said an indictment will be unsealed Monday in Collin County. Manny Garcia, the deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party, said in a statement that the case is “yet another example of the corrupt culture that fester with one-party, unchecked Republican power”.