Meanwhile, in Texas………

The senior staff of Texas Attorney Ken Paxton have signed onto a letter accusing him of bribery and abuse of office that was sent to law enforcement.

These are his hand-picked senior staff, not professional staff.

It should be noted that Paxton was indicted in 2016 for corruption, but has this far managed to prevent those charges from going to trial:

Seven members of the staff of Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, including some of his top aides, wrote a letter that surfaced over the weekend saying he should be investigated in connection with offenses including improper influence, abuse of office, bribery and other potential criminal acts.

The scenario was extraordinary, particularly because Mr. Paxton has managed to become a consequential figure in Republican legal circles in Texas and nationally despite glaring accusations in his past. In his first year as attorney general, Mr. Paxton was indicted on felony charges related to securities fraud and was booked in a county jail outside Dallas.

………

Now his tenure is threatened by a new cloud of scandal in the letter, which surfaced late Saturday in a report by The Austin American-Statesman and the Austin television station KVUE. “We have a good faith belief that the attorney general is violating federal and/or state law,” the letter said.

The substance of the allegations remains unclear, as Mr. Paxton’s aides have not elaborated in the letter or elsewhere about how they contend he violated the law and abused his office. But the complaint has drawn new scrutiny to the questions of impropriety that Mr. Paxton has so far been able to withstand.

“These allegations raise serious concerns,” Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican and Mr. Paxton’s predecessor as attorney general, said on Sunday. “I will withhold further comment until the results of any investigation are complete.”

………

Mr. Paxton has denied the accusations, issuing a statement arguing that they were meant to distract from malfeasance by others.

“The complaint filed against Attorney General Paxton was done to impede an ongoing investigation into criminal wrongdoing by public officials including employees of this office,” the statement said. “Making false claims is a very serious matter and we plan to investigate this to the fullest extent of the law.”

So, now he's threatening retaliation against the whistle-blowers.

………

The accusations against Mr. Paxton were leveled in the letter that was sent last week to state human resources officials in which the aides said they had “knowledge of facts relevant to these potential offenses” and reported them to the authorities. Federal law enforcement officials have declined to confirm that an investigation is underway.

The letter was signed by seven of the highest-ranking officials in the Attorney General’s Office, including the first assistant attorney general, Jeffrey C. Mateer, who resigned last week to join the First Liberty Institute, a religious freedom advocacy organization, to focus on elevating conservatives onto the federal bench. (Mr. Mateer’s own nomination to become a federal judge was withdrawn in 2017 after news organizations, including The Dallas Morning News, reported he had made disparaging comments about gay people and referred to transgender children as evidence of “Satan’s plan.”)

So much for it being a "Vast left-wing conspiracy."

………

It is unclear if the allegations are related to those at the heart of Mr. Paxton’s indictment in 2015, in which he was charged with two counts of first-degree securities fraud and one count of third-degree failure to register with the state securities board.

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The case has stretched out over more than five years, with change of venue requests and disputes over payments to the special prosecutors handling it. No trial date is set.

This guy is unbelievably dirty.