They love their leader. They admire his brashness and how he dances on the edge of criminal. They care so much about him that they are even willing to die for him, as those who attacked America’s Capitol Building were. But what these mesmerized people do not realize is that they cannot emulate him and get away with it as Donald Trump does. Case in point.
The Texas State Bar agreed to investigate an extraordinary complaint filed against its state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R). In a letter, 15 Texas State attorneys claimed that he had committed ethics violations and professional misconduct:
‘[They alleged his lawsuit] contained frivolous pleadings of fact and law as well as false, dishonest, deceptive, or misleading statements in the Supreme Courts in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin.’
The Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel of the State Bar of Texas Royce LeMoine sent a letter to the co-founder of Lawyers Defending American Democracy Gershon Gary Ratner. It read:
‘After receipt of the lawyer’s written response, the Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel shall investigate the Complaint to determine whether there is Just Cause to believe that the lawyer has committed Professional Misconduct or suffers from a Disability.’
In addition, Ratner’s letter told Paxton that he would be “notified in writing of further proceedings” regarding the grievance against him. At issue was the complaint that the AG tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election via the Supreme Court in four states.
The letter read, according to The Law & Crime:
‘The lawsuit that Mr. Paxton asked the Supreme Court to entertain was against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Former Vice President Joseph Biden had won the popular vote in the November election over then-president Donald Trump in all four of these states, and their electoral votes provided the critical margin of victory.’
‘Mr. Paxton’s lawsuit urged the Court to enjoin these four States from using the results of their presidential elections to appoint electors and, instead, to have the states’ legislatures appoint new electors to replace any electors the states had already appointed or to appoint no electors at all.’
Ratner’s press release said:
‘The standing to sue Mr. Paxton sought from the Supreme Court had no basis in law and would have been a prescription for an autocratic president to perpetuate his power indefinitely against the will of the voters.’
Ratner and his co-signors requested that “Paxton be suspended or banned from practicing law in Texas:”
‘After its investigation, if the Bar finds that the allegations set forth in our complaint are valid, Mr. Paxton should be suspended from the practice of law or permanently disbarred based on his extreme misconduct.’
One of the people who signed it was retired founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project and former University of Texas law professor Jim Harrington. He said:
‘We’re pleased that the State Bar took seriously the ethics violation allegations against Attorney General Paxton by Texas Bar leaders and Lawyers Defending American Democracy and is demanding that he respond to our complaint.’
The complete 31-page complaint can be found here.
Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
