Texas AG refuses to release texts he sent on day of Capitol riot
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The Attorney General of Texas, Republican Ken Paxton, has refused to comply with public information requests by several media outlets to provide his electronic communications, such as texts and emails, from the days around the Capitol riot, from 5 January to 11 January.
Mr Paxton was in Washington, DC on 6 January to take part in the Save America rally attended by then-President Donald Trump’s supporters, many of whom would later storm the Capitol building to try to stop the certification of President Joe Biden's electoral college victory.
The Texas Public Information Act gives the public the right to see government records, including records stored on private devices of government officials, The Houston Chronicle writes.
The Texas AG is already entangled in a securities fraud case, a whistleblower lawsuit, and an FBI probe – facing some of the most intense scrutiny of his entire career, The San Antonio Current reports.
It's the AG's office that's supposed to enforce the state’s open records laws, and several Texas media outlets discovered that there's no policy dictating the release of work-related messages sent and received on Mr Paxton's devices.
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It's not clear if it's the office of the Attorney General that checks for messages to provide to media organisations or if Mr Paxton himself conducts the checks without outside input, according to the Texas Tribune and the other outlets collaborating on the report.
Any Texas governmental body, such as police departments and the office of the governor, must get approval to withhold public records from an office of lawyers overseen by the Attorney General himself, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Mr Paxton was part of the failed attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election, telling the crowd assembled on the National Mall in Washington, DC on 6 January: “What we have in President Trump is a fighter. And I think that’s why we’re all here. We will not quit fighting. We’re Texans, we’re Americans, and the fight will go on.”
Mr Paxton later blamed the violence on Antifa, despite having no evidence to back up his claims.
The Save America rally booked Mr Paxton as a speaker and covered his travel expenses. His texts and other messages would reveal his real-time reaction to what was going on, but his office is still attempting to withhold his records.
The Houston Chronicle and The Dallas Morning News requested all of Mr Paxton's messages from 5 January to 11 January. Public information coordinator at the office of the Attorney General Lauren Downey said she didn't need to release the messages because they are confidential attorney-client communications.
Ms Downey looked for confirmation on the issue from the open records division. She argued that the records requested by the media shouldn’t be released because they included messages between the Attorney General’s executive leadership and the criminal prosecution division in which they talked about litigation as well as messages between Mr Paxton and a lawyer in his office about “legal services to the state”,The Dallas Morning News reported.
The open records division has 45 business days to decide on whether the messages should be made public and the decision is pending.
Lawyer and board member of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas James Hemphill said that the messages referred to by Ms Downey would seem to fall under the confidential category, but added that it was odd that the Attorney General didn't have any other messages from between 5 January and 11 January that he could provide to the public.
Advising that he hadn't seen the records himself, he told Texas media: “It would seem unusual for every single communication made by any kind of lawyer to be subject to attorney-client privilege."
Ms Downey told The Houston Chronicle that the office of the AG doesn't have any written policy or guidelines for releasing documents or information stored on Mr Paxton's devices or online accounts.
Mr Paxton said during a hearing that he “had a state purpose,” for his trip to the DC rally.
“The next day I had meetings at the White House… That’s how I spent most of my time," he said.
The Independent has reached out to Mr Paxton for comment.
