AUSTIN – A Collin County judge has expanded the probe into Attorney General Ken Paxton’s alleged securities violations, by widening the scope of possible offenses under investigation by two special prosecutors.
In late April, Judge Scott Becker appointed Houston criminal defense attorneys Brian Wice and Kent Schaffer as special prosecutors to assist in the “investigation and, if warranted, the prosecution of Ken Paxton for the securities law complaints currently under investigation by the Texas Rangers.”
In an amended order issued May 20, however, it was expanded to “any and all offenses arising out of Ken Paxton’s alleged violations of the Texas Securities Act.”
“I requested the scope of our investigation be expanded because of things that were uncovered in the course of the investigation,” Schaffer told the Chronicle Thursday. “We wanted to make sure the scope of our investigation was not limited by the original order. We were simply going where the evidence took us.”
By expanding the scope of Paxton’s possible offenses, it also increases the possibility that he will be formally indicted on charges in the coming weeks.
Texans should be shocked at this. It’s an insult to the state that our Attorney General… the person responsible for defending the government in legal matters, has so little disregard for the law himself. An indictment could spell great difficulty for state legal affairs, as the Attorney General will almost surely face pressure to resign. We can’t have our state’s top cop not doing his or her job effectively because they themselves are the subject of a court case.
Off the Kuff has more.
(Photo credit: the Dallas Morning News)