It Would Have Been Preemptive, But Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Received No Pardon As Trump Left Office
AUSTIN (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — He's been facing felony charges for more than five years and is also under FBI investigation and none of that will change for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after Donald Trump didn't include him on his last-minute list of pardons.
The federal investigation centers on allegations that Paxton committed bribery, abuse of office and other crimes. Paxton's top deputies reported him to the FBI in September, accusing him of using his position to help an Austin real estate developer.
Paxton, who was among those trying to overturn the 2020 election results, has not been charged in federal court, so any pardon would have been preemptive. The attorney general has said he did not request a pardon and has continually denied any criminal wrongdoing.
The attorney general spoke at the January 6 rally in Washington shortly before a mob of Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a deadly riot.
After Paxton brought a legal challenge asking the U.S. Supreme Court to effectively reverse Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election, speculation began that he was angling for a pardon. Trump joined the suit and praised Paxton's effort to subvert the election, but legal experts dismissed it as frivolous even before the court tossed the case.
Presidential pardons only forgive federal offenses, so if Trump had taken action it would not have had any impact on the three state felonies that have been pending against Paxton since 2015. Those criminal cases have been bogged down in appeals from defense lawyers and prosecutors, and no trial date is set.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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