Paxton wants power to pursue political prosecutions

That’s the only rational interpretation of this.

Best mugshot ever

As he begins his second term, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is looking to expand the prosecutorial power of his office, asking the Legislature for more resources and expanded jurisdiction to go after crimes related to abortion and voter fraud.

The Republican attorney general’s office has asked lawmakers for millions more in funding to prosecute election fraud and human trafficking crimes. The agency has also requested expanded jurisdiction over abortion-related crimes, which are currently the purview of local officials.

Paxton’s office, which didn’t return multiple requests for comment for this story, says additional resources — and the additional grants of authority — are necessary to ensure laws are uniformly, and firmly, enforced across the state. But in Texas, most criminal enforcement falls to local prosecutors unless they seek the state’s help. And many of those prosecutors say there’s no need for the state to take over work they’re already handling.

Critics also point to the contested areas where two of Paxton’s major requests focus — abortion and election fraud — as evidence that he’s motivated by politics, not law.

There’s a lot more in the story, and you should read it all, but what you need to know is right there. It all started with Paxton’s minions making false statements to a Senate committee about local prosecutors. Never mind that there’s essentially no such thing as “abortion-related crime” – the story never even defined what that might be, and the anti-abortion advocate quoted in the story couldn’t supply an example of it. If Ken Paxton has the power to prosecute it, whatever it is, you can bet your bottom dollar he’ll find some to prosecute. Same for “election fraud” – I guarantee you, you give him millions of dollars to spend on it, he’ll spend them all. You’ll almost forget that the original role of the Attorney General is for civil cases.

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16 Responses to Paxton wants power to pursue political prosecutions

  1. brad says:

    I am disappointed that Paxton didn’t include the extra jurisdiction to go after all the “rampant” infestation of unicorns in Texas to go along with the prosecution of all of Abbott’s self-declared “rampant” in-person voting fraud.

  2. Bill Daniels says:

    The Mueller SC and the SDNY have set the standard…..political persecution via the law is absolutely appropriate. So yes, Paxton absolutely needs to use his office to go after voter fraud, and any other crimes or embarrassing things that come up as a result of his investigations.

    The SC all started with Hillary’s hired Russian colluder, Steele, making false statements that were used by Bruce Ohr, et al, to spy on Trump, so Paxton using false statements to go after voter fraud seems A-OK to me. The precedent has been set.

    Paxton should be able to investigate anyone, their families, associates, third grade teachers, dog walkers, whatever it takes, in order to find crimes that might make political opponents look bad.

    This is where we are, this is us….

  3. Bill Daniels says:

    Manny,

    Again, we need to use Mueller as the gold standard. Mueller isn’t looking into crimes committed by his own team, like the FISA warrant abuse. That’s not his job. His job is opposition research and prosecution of the opposition. Paxton’s job should be to destroy political enemies and harass people who vote for the other team. Bonus when he actually finds crimes.

    We investigate people to find crimes, we don’t find crime and then investigate to determine who did it. Get with the program.

  4. C.L. says:

    Bill, I get that you don’t like how we got here, but dismissing the multiple crimes that have been committed by the active participants BECAUSE OF THAT would be a dereliction of duty by Mueller, the SDNY, the Justice Dept., etc.

    Perhaps I haven’t been following along close enough – is Steele in jail for making false statements to someone ? And didn’t the Justice Dept., outside of the Steele dossier, open it’s own investigation into POTUS due to him possibly being ‘compromised’ ?

  5. Bill Daniels says:

    C.L.:

    Whatever they come up with, including the process crimes of lying, which is the bulk of the charges, is all fruit from the poisonous tree. If you want to let dangerous criminals out of jail with no bond, surely you would agree that illegal searches and seizures, along with illegal spying, negate any prosecution of crimes discovered.

    And let’s talk about lying under oath. Clapper lied to Congress under oath, about not spying 1) on the American people, and 2) not spying on members of Congress. Process crimes. Lying under oath. No charges. Spying on Congress with no warrant. No charges. Spying on the American people including you and me. No charges.

    Where we are now is, political offices are to be used as weapons against political foes. OK, it is what it is. I am just waiting for Trump to gain control of the DoJ so he can use it as a cudgel to fight back and bludgeon HIS enemies. Unfortunately, Barr is not the guy to do that.

    Maybe Trump IS being blackmailed. not by Russia, but by the American left, which is why, other than Twitter, he doesn’t seem to be fighting back against all this. It’s frustrating.

  6. Tom in Lazybrook says:

    Mueller is a Republican investigating Republicans with a long history of fair prosecution.

    Paxton is a political hack with severe ethics issues and who no one respects.

  7. Bill Daniels says:

    Mueller is a never-Trumper, with a long history of shady shit, along with his amoral attack dog Weissman, and most all of their team are Dem. donors. Every single person associated with the witch hunt that has been outed has been discovered to be suffering from TDS. Ask the 4 innocent people imprisoned to keep Whitey Bulger’s secrets safe how upstanding Mueller is. Ask all the ex employees of Arthur Anderson about how upstanding they are.

    Paxton isn’t any more of a snake than Mueller. Paxton helped defraud some wealthy people with a pump and dump. Mueller put innocent people in prison, two of whom died there. Which one should we respect more?

    The Duke lacrosse team prosecutor got disbarred for less than Mueller has done.

  8. Manny says:

    What two innocent people did Mueller put in prison, Bill?

    Fruit of the poisonous tree, you make me laugh. Criminals would love you Bill. Police have warrant for heroin but they don’t find any heroin only cocaine. They let the person go because it was fruit of the poisonous tree.

  9. Bill Daniels says:

    https://www.newsmax.com/politics/alan-dershowitz-mueller-political-zealot/2018/04/08/id/853235/

    Alan Dershowitz (AP)

    By Eric Mack | Sunday, 08 April 2018 12:07 PM

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    Ripping FBI special counsel Robert Mueller as a political “zealot,” Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz reminded staunch Mueller supporters about the former FBI director’s role in protecting “notorious mass murderer” Whitey Bulger as an FBI informant.

    “I think Mueller is a zealot,” Dershowitz told “The Cats Roundtable” on 970 AM-N.Y. “. . . I don’t think he cares whether he hurts Democrats or Republicans, but he’s a partisan and zealot.

    “He’s the guy who kept four innocent people in prison for many years in order to protect the cover of Whitey Bulger as an FBI informer. Those of us in Boston don’t have such a high regard for Mueller because we remember this story. The government had to pay out tens of millions of dollars because Whitey Bulger, a notorious mass murderer, became a government informer against the mafia . . .

    “And that’s regarded in Boston of one of the great scandals of modern judicial history. And Mueller was right at the center of it. So, he is not without criticism by people who know him in Boston.”

  10. C.L. says:

    Mueller doesn’t put people in prison, jury’s do. If you telling me folks copped to crimes they didn’t commit, then let me go find my tiny violin.

    When did I say anything about folks being let out or not let out on bond ?

    Bill, I get that you don’t like all these folks associated with Trump in some fashion or another getting subpoenaed, indicted, going to trial or pleading guilty and being sentenced, but you dance with the man who brung ya.

    Also, re: Mueller and Whitey Bulgar: “There is no evidence that the assertion is true. I was the federal judge who presided over a successful lawsuit brought against the government by two of those men and the families of the other two, who had died in prison. Based on the voluminous evidence submitted in the trial, and having written a 105-page decision awarding them $101.8 million, I can say without equivocation that Mr. Mueller, who worked in the United States attorney’s office in Boston from 1982 to 1988, including a brief stint as the acting head of the office, had no involvement in that case. He was never even mentioned.” -Judge Nancy Gertner, Federal District Court of MA.

  11. Bill Daniels says:

    C.L: Prosecutors are supposed to turn over exculpatory evidence. Knowing full well that someone else is responsible for a crime and has admitted to doing the crime seems like exculpatory evidence that should have been turned over, yes?

    https://howiecarrshow.com/2018/03/22/2322/

  12. C.L. says:

    The more you link to crackpot sources of information, the less I’m inclined to listen to your argument.

    Again, no indication Mueller was involved. Focus, Bill, focus…

  13. Bill Daniels says:

    How about the Boston Globe? Liberal enough to be a source for you?

    https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2011/10/17/you-can-only-say-comment-for-long/NliOSynUFwKY2nEbA83T4H/story.html

    For what it’s worth, the ‘crackpot’ link actually had pictures of the FBI documents that prove 4 innocent men went to prison to protect Bulger. The actual documents. I guess they could have been faked, but Dersh and the Boston Globe don’t seem to think so.

  14. brad says:

    I was at Cirque de Soleil on Sunday.

    The contortionist was unbelievable. A human pretzel. I couldn’t believe how he could bend and twist into unnatural positions.

    I thought to myself… there is no way this could be beat in terms of entertainment value.

    That is until I saw Bill Daniel’s contortionist arguments above. Bill, you should figure out to monetize your circus act!

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