Here comes the dirt. Maybe.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and state Sen. Angela Paxton have agreed to unseal records related to their divorce after media outlets sued to make the documents publicly available, the Texas Tribune reports.
Angela Paxton, a McKinney Republican, this summer sought divorce on “biblical grounds,” arguing that her husband, a GOP culture-war crusader, had committed adultery. Weeks later, UK-based media outlet The Daily Mail ran a story accusing the state attorney general of having an affair with a married “Christian influencer” he met last year.
After a judge in the Paxtons’ home turf of Collin County sealed all records of the divorce proceedings, the Texas Tribune, ProPublica and other news outlets took legal action to force the records to be made public.
The Paxtons’ order will “restore full public access” to files related to the case, the Trib reports. However, a judge still must sign the order, and a hearing is scheduled for Friday.
The likely unsealing of the records comes at a sensitive time for Paxton, who’s now running against four-term incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary after spending more than a decade as Texas AG.
Political observers, including GOP strategist Karl Rove, maintain that Paxton, a prominent ally of President Donald Trump, could win the Republican primary only to lose in the general due to the scandals he’s racked up as the state’s top law-enforcement officer. If Paxton loses the general, Democrats would seize their first statewide victory in Texas since 1994.
The Texas House voted in 2023 to impeach Paxton over allegations of bribery and abuse of office, but the state Senate ultimately decided not to convict. Among the complaints of misconduct were accusations that he had an extramarital affair with a woman he later recommended for a job with a key political donor.
Paxton was also the target of a years-long FBI investigation after eight of his top aides reported him to the feds, alleging that he engaged in bribery and abuse of office. Shortly before Trump took office, the the Justice Department quietly opted not to prosecute the case.
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