3/25/21
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office is refusing to release his communications from his time in Washington, D.C., leading up to the Capitol riot. Several Texas news organizations have requested copies of Paxton’s communications as the Texas Public Information Act guarantees the public’s right to those government records, even if they were stored on personal devices, but his office has refused thus far, according to several outlets. Paxton spoke at the Jan. 6 Save America rally, the event then-President Donald Trump also spoke at, before thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and engaged in a violent clash with law enforcement officers. The riot interrupted Congress’s attempt to certify the election win of President Joe Biden. “What we have in President Trump is a fighter,” Paxton said during his speech. “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.” The outlets are looking to acquire Paxton's communications to uncover his real-time reaction to the subsequent riot, who booked him to speak at the rally, and who paid for his trip there. They discovered that Paxton’s office, which is supposed to enforce the state’s open records laws, has no policy governing the release of work-related messages stored on Paxton’s personal devices.
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www.texastribune.org
