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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Ken Paxton Blames|Indictment on Politics

DALLAS (CN) - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday professed his innocence of felony securities charges, in his most detailed comments yet on criminal and civil cases that he blames on President Barack Obama and political opponents.

In a video posted on his campaign's YouTube account, Paxton said he learned "a long time ago that if your opponents are screaming at you, you are probably doing something right."

He said some people are mad that he has "made no bones about" being a conservative Christian.

"I'm here to tell you that I am not going anywhere," Paxton said. "And I want you to know that I will continue to do the job that I was elected to do. I want to assure you and all Texans that I am standing up for liberty, defending the Constitution and fighting against the illegal actions of the Obama administration."

Paxton said he recently led 26 states in a legal challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court against Obama's executive amnesty plan for undocumented immigrants.

"We made the case that Obama is not an emperor, he does not have unlimited authority and, in fact, he does not make the laws," Paxton said. "Congress makes the laws."

Paxton's legal problems began when the Texas State Securities Board fined him $1,000 in 2014 after he admitted he had solicited clients for a friend's investment firm, Mowery Capital Management, without being registered as an investment adviser, and while he was a state senator. Paxton paid the fine and was reprimanded.

That led to a Texas Rangers investigation that resulted in three felony securities fraud indictments in Collin County in August 2015.

Prosecutors say Paxton urged investors in 2011 to invest $600,000 in technology firm Servergy without telling them he would earn a commission on it, and misrepresented that he was investing in the McKinney-based company.

The Securities and Exchange Commission entered the fray in April when it filed a civil suit against Paxton and others in Dallas Federal Court, closely mirroring allegations in the criminal case: that he hid compensation he was given for touting Servergy.

In the video he released Wednesday night, Paxton said he wants the public to hear "directly from me and not filtered by liberal reporters, spin doctors" and political enemies.

"These charges are false and I will prevail against them in court," he said. "I never imagined that after being fairly elected by the people of Texas, I would wake up one day to find myself charged with crimes I did not commit. The public will see for themselves that they are, at their root, politically motivated. It is not a coincidence that the chief witness against me is a political adversary of mine."

Paxton broke his months-long silence in April when he spoke to the Northeast Tarrant Tea Party. "I have had no speeding tickets in my life," he said at the time. "I have never been audited by the IRS, never been investigated - never, no bar grievances with the State Bar."

Paxton implied that his bank accounts had been frozen, prompting his attorney, William Mateja with Polsinelli in Dallas, to say that his bank or retirement accounts had not been shut down.

Paxton released the video the day before the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas will hear his appeal of the denial of his motions to dismiss the criminal indictments. Tarrant County Judge George Gallagher rejected Paxton's four applications for habeas corpus and six motions to quash in December, paving the way for trial.

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