Justice Department decided not prosecute Texas AG Ken Paxton near end of Biden’s term

The Justice Department late last year quietly opted not to prosecute Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Associated Press reports, signaling an apparent close of federal scrutiny into one the state’s most powerful Republican elected officials.

Citing two people who spoke on condition of anonymity and are familiar with the matter, the AP reports the decision came during the “final weeks” of President Joe Biden’s term. This is the first time a news organization has reported the case was dropped.

Justice Department officials offered no comment to the AP for its report.

Paxton had been under federal scrutiny since 2000, when eight of his top aides reported him to the FBI, alleging that he engaged in bribery and abuse of office. The whistleblowers accused the AG of using his office to help real-estate developer Nate Paul, a buddy and campaign contributor. Paul also allegedly provided a job to a woman with whom Paxton acknowledged having an extramarital affair.

In January, Paul pleaded guilty to a federal charge that he lied to banks to win $170 million in loans.

In 2023, the Justice Department’s public integrity section took over the Paxton probe from federal prosecutors in Texas, according to the AP’s reporting. In August of that year, the Austin American-Statesman reported that the feds had empaneled a San Antonio grand jury to hear evidence in the case.

However, the AP now reports a senior career Justice Department official recommended closing the case after voicing concerns whether prosecutors could win a conviction. The wire service cited a separate person “briefed on the matter” on that detail.

While Paxton attorney Dan Cogdell told the AP he never thought the feds could make a case against his client, the former aides who reported Paxton to the FBI had a different take.

“After the November election, the DOJ accepted a guilty plea from Nate Paul and is apparently letting Ken Paxton escape justice,” TJ Turner and Tom Nesbitt, attorneys for two of the whistleblowers, said in a statement to the AP. “DOJ clearly let political cowardice impact its decision. The whistleblowers — all strong conservatives — did the right thing and continue to stand by their allegations of Paxton’s criminal conduct.”

Paxton, who’s faced frequent accusations of using his office to further a partisan agenda, is no stranger to controversy — or to accusations of wrongdoing.

In 2023, the Texas House impeached Paxton on corruption charges, although the state Senate subsequently voted to acquit. Last year, he agreed to pay almost $300,000 in restitution to close out a years-old state securities fraud case accusing him of soliciting investors for a tech startup without revealing he’d been paid to promote its stock.

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This article appears in Apr 2-15, 2025.