Congressman Chip Roy of Texas is calling on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to resign. Roy is Paxton's former top assistant. In a statement, he says his former boss must resign amid “troubling” accusations of bribery and misuse of office.
Paxton has denied wrongdoing, and blamed the whistle-blowers for “making false claims." Roy now joins both the Governor and the Lt. Governor, in issuing statements saying the accusations against Paxton raise serious concerns.
Roy issued the following statement, "For the good of the people of Texas and the extraordinary public servants who serve at the Office of the Attorney General, Attorney General Ken Paxton must resign. The allegations of bribery, abuse of office, and other charges levied against him by at least 7 senior leaders of the Office of the Attorney General are more than troubling on the merits. But, any grace for him to resolve differences and demonstrate if the allegations are false was eliminated by his choice instead to attack the very people entrusted, by him, to lead the office – some of whom I know well and whose character are beyond reproach. The work of the Office of the Attorney General of Texas is too critical to the state and her people to leave in chaos and to risk the work of over 700 lawyers managing almost 30,000 legal cases at any given moment, including major cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as processing over $4 Billion in Child Support. The Attorney General deserves his days in court, but the people of Texas deserve a fully functioning AG’s office."
Paxton released the following statement, "The Texas attorney general's office was referred a case from Travis county regarding allegations of crimes relating to the FBI, other government agencies and individuals. My obligation as attorney general is to conduct an investigation upon such referral. Because employees from my office impeded the investigation and because I knew Nate Paul I ultimately decided to hire an outside independent prosecutor to make his own independent determination. Despite the effort by rogue employees and their false allegations I will continue to seek justice in Texas and will not be resigning."
Paxton was elected to the attorney general's position on November 4, 2014, and sworn into office on January 5, 2015. He was re-elected to a second term in 2018.
First elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2002, Attorney General Paxton represented House District 70 for 10 years. In 2012, he was elected to the Texas state Senate, representing Senate District 8 in Collin and Dallas counties.
Photo: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (Texas Attorney General's office)