Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Ordered Publication Of Emails And Texts From About January 6th The Capitol Attack

Sunlight is a good disinfectant

The Travis County District Attorney’s office in Austin notified Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) on Thursday that he has violate state open records laws by refusing to release any of his communications from around January 6, when Paxton was in Washington, DC, and showed up at a rally before the siege of the Capitol. District Attorney José Garza (D) gave Paxton four days to “remediate this violation” by turning over the documents or facing a lawsuit.

The Texas Public Information Act gives the public the right to government records, including those on a public official’s personal device or online account. Paxton attempted to claim attorney-client privilege for every email and text message he sent in the days surrounding the January 6 attack. Top editors of the five newspapers – Austin Chinese American, Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Houston Chronicle, and San Antonio Express-News — filed a complaint with Travis County DA on January 4, alleging Paxton violated open records laws.

Attorney General usually execute The Public Information Act, but the law also allows the Travis County district attorney’s office to deal with violations filed with the state agency. The newspapers filed their complaints with Garza.

Bill Aleshire, a lawyer and transparency expert, Talk to take note this is the first time he has heard of the state attorney general being accused of violating public records laws to shield his own communications. “When the public official responsible for enforcing public records laws violates those laws, it puts a knife at the heart of transparency at every level in Texas,” he said. “Why should other Texas officials be transparent about public information if the AG itself is not?”

The House committee on January 6 is also interested in Paxton’s communications with former President Donald Trump and has requested several of them from the National Archives and other federal agencies, The Texas Tribune Note.

Paxton, seeking re-election this year, “is currently facing the harshest scrutiny of his decades-long career, with some people challenge GOP, three states criminal indictment, accusations of adultery, and FBI is waiting for bribery investigation, ” the take note report. “Paxton has denied any wrongdoing.”