Judge rejects Paxton’s effort to arrest Texas Dems in Illinois

 

Wednesday, August 13

A win for New Hampshire voters A federal court rejected New Hampshire’s attempt to throw out a lawsuit challenging its new proof-of-citizenship voting law, keeping the case alive. Pro-voting groups say the law unfairly burdens the right to vote and violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Trump military policing trial concludes  California is seeking a court order restricting President Donald Trump’s use of the military in civilian law enforcement. The three day, non-jury trial ended today. The trial revealed close coordination between the military and law enforcement agencies. Soldiers attended FBI briefings on upcoming arrests, set up traffic blockades and barriers for law enforcement operations and detained citizens on at least two occasions.

Paxton’s petition to arrest House Democrats was dismissed and we’re giving you the context no one else is reporting. Upgrade to support our independent 20-person team tracking the GOP’s redistricting playbook.

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SCOTUS term lining up to be consequential (again) for democracy Marc joined Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” to discuss the Supreme Court’s decision to hear several election cases this fall, including a high-stakes Louisiana redistricting case that could undermine the Voting Rights Act and an anti-voting lawsuit challenging Illinois’ ballot receipt deadlines. What you need to know as the redistricting war wages on  As Texas continues its redistricting scheme to secure five additional GOP seats ahead of the 2026 midterms, Democratic states have said they’ll fight fire with fire. But as blue states push back, the Trump DOJ is threatening legal action against them. Today a judge in Illinois ruled against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s petition to have the House Democrats who fled to Chicago arrested. The judge said the state circuit court does not have the authority to tell Illinois officials to execute civil warrants from Texas.  Coming up tomorrow Paxton sued former Rep. Beto O'Rourke and his organization Powered by People for funding quorum-breaking Democrats. Last week, the judge temporarily blocked O'Rourke and his group from using political donations to support quorum-breaking Democratic lawmakers. There will be a hearing tomorrow at 11 a.m. CT to address the state's emergency motion to modify the court's block and the request for expedited discovery.

TYPICAL MAGA GOP - BLAME OTHERS & ATTACK FOR YOUR WRONG DOING & CRIMES! 

TEXAS: THIS IS WHO YOU ELECTED - KEN PAXTON CHEATED INVESTORS! 

KEN PAXTON DRAGGED THIS OUT SINCE 2015!

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton makes deal to end securities fraud charges weeks before trial

Politics Mar 26, 2024 11:52 AM EST

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday agreed to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution under a deal to end criminal securities fraud charges that have shadowed the Republican for nearly a decade.

READ MORE: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s securities fraud trial delayed until end of impeachment trial

The announcement by special prosecutors in a Houston courtroom came less than three weeks before Paxton was set to stand trial on felony charges that could have led to a prison sentence. It was the closest Paxton — who was indicted in 2015 — has ever come to trial over accusations that he duped investors in a tech startup near Dallas.

Under the 18-month pre-trial agreement, the special prosecutors would drop three felony counts against Paxton, while he must pay full restitution to victims, and complete 100 hours of community service and 15 hours of legal ethics education.

Paxton was in the courtroom but made no comment other than affirming to state District Judge Andrea Beall that his signature was on the agreement.

If he had been convicted, Paxton could have been sentenced to life in prison. Paxton’s attorneys emphasized in a statement Tuesday that he made no admission of guilt under the agreement.

“This case has been pending literally longer than the Beatles were together — it was time to move on — and this proposal by the Special Prosecutors allows him to do just that,” said Don Cogdell, one of Paxton’s attorney.

The agreement with prosecutors, which lets Paxton remain in his elected position and doesn’t affect his law license, is another huge legal and political victory for one of the nation’s most visible Republican state attorney generals. The end of the case comes six months after Paxton was acquitted of corruption charges in an impeachment trial in the Texas Senate.

Brian Wice, a Houston attorney who was assigned as a special prosecutor in the case, described the deal as a victory that requires Paxton to repay investors, one of whom is a former GOP lawmaker who served with Paxton in the Texas Legislature.

Wice acknowledged the long arc of the case that shuffled between four different judges over the years, ping-ponged between courtrooms in Dallas and Houston, and at one point was slowed by the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

“This case, no pun intended, was a perfect storm of everything that could have derailed and delayed the prosecution,” Wice said.

The resolution of the securities fraud case furthers a dramatic reversal of political fortune for Paxton, who just a year ago appeared imperiled by both the criminal case and the threat of being removed from office after his top aides reported him to the FBI.

But Paxton has emerged emboldened. He waged war against dozens of GOP lawmakers who were part of the 2023 effort to impeach him, with his biggest target being state House Speaker Dade Phelan, who was forced into a May 28 runoff. Paxton’s revenge campaign also included helping defeat three Republican judges on the state Court of Criminal Appeals because they were part of a majority that stripped his office of the power to prosecute election fraud without permission from local district attorneys. He has not ruled out a primary challenge to Republican Sen. John Cornyn in 2026.

Paxton still faces legal troubles, however. A federal investigation has been probing some of the same charges presented in his impeachment.

He is also fighting efforts by former top aides to make him testify in a whistleblower civil lawsuit that also includes allegations central to the impeachment.

The securities fraud case has hung over Paxton nearly his entire time in statewide office. Yet Paxton, 61, has shown remarkable political resilience, maintaining and growing strong support among GOP activists on the state and national level, including from former President Donald Trump.

Paxton had been accused of defrauding investors in a Dallas-area tech company called Servergy by not disclosing that he was being paid by the company to recruit them. One of the people Paxton was accused of defrauding was former state Rep. Byron Cook.

Paxton was charged with two counts of securities fraud and one count of not being registered as an investment advisor.

READ MORE: Timeline of events leading to the impeachment of Republican Texas AG Ken Paxton

Paxton was also charged in a federal civil complaint filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over his work with Servergy. But a federal judge in March 2017 dismissed the complaint against Paxton. The person who recruited Paxton to work with Servergy, ex-company CEO William Mapp, was found liable by a jury for misleading investors and ordered to pay a civil penalty of $22,500. Mapp lost his job with Servergy and later had to work as an Uber driver to make ends meet, according to court documents.

Pre-trial disputes over trial location in the Dallas area or Houston and payment for the state’s special prosecutors delayed the securities fraud case against Paxton for years. Prosecutors argued most of those delays were caused by Paxton.

Paxton’s lawyers last month unsuccessfully sought to have the charges against him thrown out, arguing that the years of delay had violated his right to a speedy trial.

The fraud allegations were among the original 20 articles of impeachment. But that process was a political one. The criminal case posed a much more serious threat.

Paxton’s political opponents, most notably Republicans, had used the fraud charges against him in elections. But Paxton has twice been reelected as attorney general since his indictment, most recently in 2022.

Associated Press writer Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas contributed to this report.

NPR

SHOCKING: Texas Officials CAUGHT BLOCKING Your Vote!

 

Talking Feds with Harry Litman

262K subscribers

Travis County is suing Attorney General Ken Paxton and Secretary of State Jane Nelson over the state's attempt to block voter registration efforts on the basis that it violates the Voter Registration Act. – TALKING FEDS PODCAST is a roundtable discussion that brings together prominent former government officials, journalists, and special guests for a dynamic and in-depth analysis of the most pressing questions in law and politics. New episodes every week! Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57MG7Rv... Make sure to SUBSCRIBE!    / @talkingfeds   FOLLOW US Website: https://www.talkingfeds.com/ Twitter:   / talkingfedspod   Harry’s Twitter:   / harrylitman   Instagram:   / talkingfedspod   Facebook:   / talkingfeds   TikTok:   / talkingfedspod   SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER: https://www.talkingfeds.com/contact BECOME A PATREON MEMBER:   / talkingfeds   CONTACT US Contact forms: https://www.talkingfeds.com/contact Email: talkingfedspodcast@gmail.com

 

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump attends an event with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on June 11, 2020. 

(Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

Beware the Republican Plot to Steal the 2024 Election

From Georgia to Arizona, Nevada to Michigan, Republicans are mounting an all-out assault on the election process that journalist Ari Berman refers to as a “five-alarm fire for democracy.”

The “Party of Lincoln,” as Republicans call themselves, seems intent on undermining just about everything President Abraham Lincoln lived and died for. This includes Republican efforts to upend the way elections are run, by restricting who gets to vote, how voting is conducted, and how votes are counted and certified.

The outcome of the tight presidential race between former U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris will hinge on the votes in a handful of swing states. From Georgia to Arizona, Nevada to Michigan, Republicans are mounting an all-out assault on the election process that journalist Ari Berman refers to as a “five-alarm fire for democracy.”

“It appears that Georgia Republicans are laying the groundwork not to certify the presidential election if Kamala Harris wins,” Berman said on the Democracy Now! news hour. “They’re doing exactly what Trump wanted them to do in 2020. Trump made Georgia the epicenter of the attempt to try to overturn the election. He asked local and State Board of Elections and election officials not to certify the election. They refused to do so; they followed the law. It seems like in 2024 they’re going to extraordinary lengths to try to implement the measures that failed in 2020, to try to rig the election for Trump.”

The Republican Party of today, desperate to suppress the votes of people of color, could not be further from the Party of Lincoln.

Georgia Republicans altered how counties count and certify votes. The Democratic Party of Georgia, the Democratic National Committee, and 10 Democratic county election officials from across Georgia have sued, seeking to roll back the changes. Their lawsuit argues, “Georgia’s State Election Board has passed a host of last-minute rules that threaten to sow chaos and impede the vote-canvassing process.”

Berman warns: “These state and local election boards have been taken over, in some cases, by election deniers, by MAGA extremists…The administration of elections matters so much because you can cast a vote, you can have your vote counted, but it doesn’t actually matter until votes are certified.”

In Texas, the Republican-controlled state government has for years tried to restrict voting in districts where Democratic candidates do well. Donald Trump won Texas by over five percentage points in 2020, but President Joe Biden won the cities of Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and El Paso as well as the Rio Grande Valley.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced this week that he has purged over 1 million voters from Texas voter rolls. This increasingly common tactic inevitably removes legally-registered voters, often through faulty data screens that target likely Democratic voters.

Meanwhile, Texas’ Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s currently agreed to do community service to avoid a felony criminal securities fraud trial, and survived an unrelated impeachment trial in the Republican-controlled state senate, has been raiding nonprofit organizations that provide services to immigrant and Latino communities.

Last week, under Paxton’s orders, the homes of a dozen members of LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens, were raided and searched by Texas authorities, including SWAT teams. One activist’s door was broken down. Texas House candidate Cecilia Castellano, running for an open seat to represent Uvalde, the town devastated by one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history, had her home raided. Government agents took her cell phone and, weeks ahead of election day, threw her campaign into chaos.

LULAC said in a statement, “Attorney General Paxton’s actions clearly aim to suppress the Latino vote through intimidation and any means necessary to tilt the electoral process in favor of his political allies.” LULAC has called on the Justice Department to investigate Paxton over the raids.

Juan Proaño, CEO of LULAC, said on Democracy Now!, “In the last U.S. Census, they reported 12.1 million Latinos in the state of Texas. For the first time, Latinos actually outnumber non-Hispanic whites, which is at 12 million. When you take into account not just the Latino population in the state of Texas, but the African American and Asian population… the minority community in Texas now stands at over 60%. Texas is and has been a majority-minority state. So, we see these, effectively, as tactics for the Republicans to actually stay in control of the government in Texas.”

If further evidence of Republican attempts to subvert the will of the voters were needed, Pluribus News, a nonprofit news organization, reports that Republican-controlled state governments are altering language on progressive state ballot initiatives to confuse or mislead voters. Arizona, for example, inserted “unborn human being” in place of fetus or embryo in the ballot initiative intended to guarantee the right to an abortion. Voters in Florida and Ohio will face similar confusing language in their ballot initiatives.

In President Lincoln’s final public address, three days before his assassination, Lincoln advocated that the right to vote be granted to formerly enslaved Black men (as only men could legally vote, until 1920). The Republican Party of today, desperate to suppress the votes of people of color, could not be further from the Party of Lincoln.

COMMON DREAMS

Trump ARRIVES at Trial a TOTAL FRIGID MESS…

 

CORRUPT TX AG KEN PAXTON ... HUH? 

tRUMP DELUSIONS & RAMBLINGS....

FOX NEWS = FAKE NEWS LIARS! 

MeidasTouch

2.34M subscribers

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump arriving to trial and whining about the temperature of the courtroom and making other unhinged statements. Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Support the MeidasTouch Network:   / meidastouch   Add the MeidasTouch Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Buy MeidasTouch Merch: https://store.meidastouch.com Follow MeidasTouch on Twitter:   / meidastouch   Follow MeidasTouch on Facebook:   / meidastouch   Follow MeidasTouch on Instagram:   / meidastouch   Follow MeidasTouch on TikTok:   / meidastouch