FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges alleging that he defrauded investors before he became the state’s top lawyer, and his high-powered attorney announced that he would no longer represent him.
Paxton appeared before District Judge George Gallagher in Fort Worth. The Republican is charged with two counts of securities fraud over allegations he deceived investors in a tech startup that was compensating Paxton for bringing in business.
Paxton’s attorney, Joe Kendall, said Paxton had submitted written requests to plead not guilty to the charges. Paxton said nothing about his plea but briefly addressed the court moments later, after Kendall, a former federal judge, said he planned to withdraw from the case. Kendall didn’t go into detail about why he was leaving the case, telling the judge only that there were “issues” that would complicate his continued involvement.
The attorney general was asked about changing lawyers and started to answer from his seat, to which Gallagher responded: “You need to stand, please.”
Asked if Kendall’s departure left him without a lawyer, Paxton sounded somewhat unsure but said he intended to hire a new attorney by next week. The judge gave him until Sept. 3.
The special prosecutors leading the case against Paxton said they didn’t object to Paxton switching attorneys, but they noted that he has gone through a series of lawyers and were wary of it becoming a stall tactic as the case proceeds.
Paxton is one of two state attorneys general in the U.S. who are staying in office while fighting criminal charges. Pennsylvania Democrat Kathleen Kane is accused of leaking grand jury information.
Paxton turned himself in earlier this month and was released after taking a booking photo.
Paxton took office in January. Top Texas Republicans haven’t publicly rallied behind him, though one Republican state lawmaker was in court to watch the proceedings.
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Photo: Protesters calling for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to resign hold signs as they stand outside the Collin County Courthouse.
If it was just Kendall recusing, it could be a number of things, including some technical conflict with another or previous client. But “a series of lawyers” suggests one or both of Paxton playing games and presenting each in that “series” with an ethical problem none of them want to absorb. That TYPICALLY means either a direction from the client to run an obstruction strategy involving or at least not excluding tactics that are marginal at best, like some weird variation the so-called “grey mail” tactic. Whatever his directions are, they may also be of the sort that ordinarily requires a defendant enter the witness box, and the inability - or REFUSAL - of the client to answer the defending team’s questions necessary to provide him with constitutionally adequate defense may be either a factor or even - tho normally less likely - THE problem.
When an attorney is faced with the prospect of acting for a snake as bent and twisted as Paxton, it could even be ‘all the above’.