Ken Paxton Could Be Disbarred as Money Pours Into His Impeachment Fight

Impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton (Photo by Jana Birchum)

Fourteen attorneys, including three former presidents of the Texas State Bar, are asking that Ken Paxton be stripped of his law license.

The group is calling on the bar to investigate the bribery, aggravated perjury, and racketeering charges against the state’s top attorney that were made public in May, when the Texas House of Representatives voted to impeach him. “Paxton‘s conduct is so egregious that the State Bar has no real option other than moving forward with the inquiry into disbarring him,” said Jim Harrington, the retired founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project and one of the attorneys seeking to end Paxton’s law career. “None of us are above the law. The bar must, for its own integrity, adhere to this fundamental principle.”

Paxton’s trial in the Senate is scheduled to begin on Sept. 5 and Harrington hopes the AG is convicted. “He’s just so sleazy, but I’m not very optimistic,” Harrington said. “There’s a lot of money floating around right now.”

Some of that money is the $3 million that Paxton’s billionaire supporters, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, gave Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick in July through their PAC, Defend Texas Liberty. As reported in the Texas Tribune and elsewhere, $1 million of the money is an outright gift. The other $2 million is a loan that may or may not have to be repaid, perhaps depending on Patrick’s performance during the impeachment.

“That money is just right out there in everyone's face,” Harrington said. “In another country we would call it corruption. Here, we call it access.”

Alongside the carrot (the money), Defend Texas Liberty is brandishing a stick: it is openly threatening Republican lawmakers. Jonathan Stickland, who runs the PAC, has loudly proclaimed that any Republican who votes for impeachment is “risking their entire political career.” On Aug. 22, he went on the Steve Bannon show and said that Defend Texas Liberty is spending millions on Paxton. Talk then turned to some of the very conservative Republican senators who will decide the AG’s fate, including Bryan Hughes, Kelly Hancock, Charles Schwertner, Charles Perry, Drew Springer, and Mayes Middleton.

“We're gonna make these six famous in the days ahead,” Bannon said.