Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is being investigated by the State Bar of Texas for alleged ethics violations when he filed a lawsuit challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election.
According to an Associated Press report, the bar’s investigation of Paxton regarding alleged professional misconduct could take months as the organization tries to determine if he acted in bad faith by bringing a federal lawsuit challenging the election results in four states.
In December, Paxton petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate Electoral College votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin for violating their own state constitutions by changing requirements that allowed absentee and mail-in voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Democrat Joe Biden defeated Republican President Donald Trump in those key battleground states to win the election.
The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the case in January, citing Texas’ lack of jurisdiction in how other states regulate their elections, sealing Biden’s victory.
Kevin Moran, president of the Galveston Island Democrats, brought a complaint to the state bar association, calling Paxton’s suit a “wasteful embarrassment” and asked for Paxton to lose his law license in the state.
“He wanted to disenfranchise the voters in four other states,” Moran said in an Associated Press article. “It’s just crazy.”
Moran shared his complaint and correspondence with the Texas state bar, which are normally confidential, with The Associated Press.
According to the story, the bar initially refused to hear the complaint, but that decision was overturned in a rare move by a review tribunal of the organization.
Paxton has less than a month to answer the complaint and prove why the suit was not brought “in bad faith.”
The process could result in disbarment, suspension or several “lesser punishments,” according to the story.
State Bar of Texas spokesperson Claire Reynolds said state law prohibits her from commenting on Moran’s complaint unless there is a public sanction or court action.
While many have scoffed at the idea that fraud was connected to the election and call claims to that effect “debunked,” Paxton said Wednesday that getting to the truth of what happened, either way, is what matters and audits of the results in several states will show that.
“All it's going to do is either show that the election turned out the right way or it turned out the wrong way, and either way, it seems like the American people, people in Georgia, the people of my state benefit from knowing the truth," Paxton, a Republican, said on Newsmax’s “John Bachman Now.” "Let us find out what actually happened in Georgia. Let us find out what happened in some of these states that are in question."
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