Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has prevailed in an ethics lawsuit over his role in challenging the 2020 presidential election results.
On Wednesday, a disciplinary commission of the State Bar of Texas dropped its lawsuit against Paxton. The commission, which determines whether lawyers are abiding by ethics rules, had sued over the attorney general’s decision to challenge Joe Biden’s win in several swing states. It had accused Paxton and his first assistant, Brent Webster, of making misleading statements to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case.
But the commission’s lawyers said it was dropping the suit Wednesday after the Texas Supreme Court ruled last month that Webster could not be disciplined.
The high-court ruling hinged on who could discipline the sitting attorney general – who acts as the state’s lawyer – and his staff. The court said allowing the commission’s lawsuit to continue would “risk the politicization and thus the independence of the judiciary.”
The two cases made the same legal arguments, the commission’s lawyers wrote in their Wednesday filing, so they felt they needed to drop the case against Paxton. They filed the notice of nonsuit “with prejudice,” meaning they cannot file this same legal challenge against Paxton again.
A spokesperson with the State Bar declined to comment. Paxton’s agency did not immediately return a request for comment.
This outcome was not a surprise.
Paxton celebrated Webster’s win last month, calling the lawsuit “disgraceful, ridiculous, and a disservice to the people of Texas.”
“Thankfully, with President Trump back in the White House and these attempts to wage legal warfare against us defeated, we can finally get back to making Texas and America great again without distraction,” Paxton said.
Paxton has repeatedly been accused of bribery, self-dealing and fraud during his more than 20 years in public service — but has never been convicted.
In March 2024, Paxton cut a deal to avoid trial in a yearslong securities fraud case. Federal authorities twice charged him with similar felonies. But a judge dismissed the cases.
The Texas House impeached Paxton for alleged corruption in summer 2023. But the Senate acquitted him later that year.
The FBI has been investigating Paxton for these same corruption charges for years but has never brought federal charges. It’s unclear whether this probe will remain active under Trump.
He still faces a whistleblower lawsuit filed by former employees who reported him to the FBI.
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