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Eugene

(61,900 posts) Mon Feb 1, 2016, 04:27 PM Feb 2016

Indicted Texas Attorney General Denied OK to Use Donors

Source: Associated Press

State ethics regulators denied Texas' attorney general their blessing Monday to let political donors pay his criminal defense, a surprise decision that could intensify pressure on the state's top prosecutor.

Republican Ken Paxton could still use wealthy supporters to cover his legal bills connected to felony charges of defrauding investors, but he risks doing so without a key seal-of-approval from the Texas Ethics Commission, which declined to interpret such donations as legal.

Paxton, who says he won't resign despite charges of securities fraud and separate investigation into a profitable land deal, has not said how he is paying for his high-powered defense team. He is prohibited from using taxpayer dollars and is also barred from tapping his campaign account.

Entirely appointed by state Republican leaders, the ethics board had drafted a lengthy opinion that would have sanctioned Paxton using out-of-state doors but came up a vote shy of approval.

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/indicted-texas-attorney-general-denied-donors-36644374

By PAUL J. WEBER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN, Texas — Feb 1, 2016, 2:55 PM ET

4 replies

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Highlight:

Indicted Texas Attorney General Denied OK to Use Donors (Original Post) Eugene Feb 2016 OP

I don't really understand this. He's Republican, the ethics board is Republican, and the state valerief Feb 2016 #1

read lawflog.com He covers it really well as well as other nefarious Texas issues cpamomfromtexas Feb 2016 #3

thanks valerief Feb 2016 #4

... Faux pas Feb 2016 #2

valerief

(53,235 posts)

1. I don't really understand this. He's Republican, the ethics board is Republican, and the state

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Mon Feb 1, 2016, 05:06 PM

Feb 2016

is Texas. Why is he arrested for felony at all? Don't they sweep those things under the rug for their good ol' boys? Why isn't he one of them?

The fact that the regulators made the right call is beside the point. This is Texas. And Republicans.

What's the REAL story?

"I was prohibited by policy from buying a Subway sandwich," said commissioner Jim Clancy, recalling a lunch he once had with two prosecutors in the attorney general's office. "I wonder how it's possible that this opinion could not already be prohibited by the attorney generals' own practices if I could not buy someone a $6 sandwich."