Texas(s) teabagger Republican Attorney General Ken "Doll" Paxton was in the news last week after the Supreme Court issued its ruling allowing same-sex marriage nationwide, saying the First Amendment “may allow accommodation of [county clerks’] religious objections to issuing same-sex marriage licenses.” (Um, no, now that the Fifth Circuit has directed court clerks in Texas and other states under its jurisdiction to issue those licenses. But nice try, Ken "Doll.")
Now, however, Constitushunal skolar Ken "Doll" may want to brush up on the Fifth Amendment:
A special prosecutor said Wednesday that he’ll ask a Collin County grand jury to indict Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on first-degree felony charges of violating state securities law.
Kent Schaffer, a Houston defense attorney, said a Texas Rangers investigation of Paxton revealed that the attorney general broke laws beyond what he admitted last year, when he was fined $1,000 by the State Securities Board.
“That’s what we intend to present to the grand jury,” said Schaffer, when asked whether Paxton committed a first-degree felony. “We have a sufficient amount of evidence. Whether it leads to a criminal indictment or not is up to the grand jury.” [snip]
Paxton, a Republican, took office in January after riding a surge of tea party support to victory in last fall’s election.
Last year during his campaign, Paxton admitted to the Texas State Securities Board that while he was in the Legislature, he solicited clients for a friend’s investment firm without being registered with the state. He paid a $1,000 fine and was reprimanded by the board. (our emphasis)As the article points out, it's up to the grand jury to indict, and Ken "Doll"'s lawyers can be expected to employ every legal trick in the book to forestall an indictment, or at the very least, drag the proceedings out. But you notice how it's getting to be almost de rigeur for these far-right pols to have ethical or legal problems? Must be in their political DNA.
