Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas, underwent a removal attempt in September, which failed after the state Senate voted against it. Just weeks after the end of the process, which had the outstanding participation of lawyer Tony Buzbee on his defense, the Republican announced that he will file criminal complaints against the 12 local legislators for breaking the law in the process of trying to remove him from office.
According to Paxton, the issue is that they posted sensitive personal information, including his home address. Specifically, he accuses them of doxing him, a practice that consists precisely of collecting and publishing personal information about someone or a group, without their consent, with the aim of damaging their public and professional career.
The crime is covered in House Bill 611, passed in the local legislature earlier this year. Violating this law could result in a Class B misdemeanor charge.
According to the legislation, "a person commits an offense if the person posts on a publicly accessible website the residence address or telephone number of an individual with the intent to cause harm or a threat of harm to the individual or a member of the individual’s family or household."
BREAKING: @KenPaxtonTX Files Criminal Complaints Against @Dadephelan's House Impeachment Managers, Reports Crimes. https://t.co/VIm5rWKfrm
— The Chris Salcedo Show (@CSalcedoShow) October 9, 2023
Paxton spoke to The Daily Caller before announcing the news and stated that the tactics used against him during the impeachment inquiry directly affected his family.
"My family and I receive multiple threats of violence. The legislature passed an anti-doxing law to stop the far left from using intimidation tactics like leaking or releasing personal information that would allow nefarious individuals to do harm to elected officials. The impeachment managers clearly have a desire to threaten me with harm when they released this information last week," he said.
A few hours later, the Republican publicly released a statement in which he said he is "imploring their local prosecutors in each individual district to investigate the criminal offenses that have been committed."
The Texas Senate acquitted Paxton in September of each and every one of the 16 articles of impeachment that the Texas House of Representatives had previously approved. Last week, those in charge of the process in the House published elements that were considered inadmissible during the trial that kept the state in suspense for 10 days.
The pages revealed sensitive information, such as details of renovations being carried out at the Paxton home, as well as a transcript detailing why Laura Olson did not testify during the trial. The woman was accused of having an extramarital relationship with the Texas Attorney General.
