Ken Paxton

American lawyer, politician; Republican; 51st AG of Tx 1/5/15-suspended 5/27/23. Married Angela Suzanne Allen now a member of TX Senate, 8th district; they have 4 children. Tea Party conservative. Stopped the EPA's “Regional Haze” rule. Killed the Department of Labor’s “Overtime” rule. Attorney General Paxton led a successful multistate coalition against the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. Led 20-state coalition lawsuit holding Obamacare unconstitutional. Filed 22 lawsuits against the Obama administration during a two-year stretch. Six were heard in the U.S. Supreme Court. He's "obtained an injunction or other winning ruling in more than 75 percent of the cases he's brought against the federal government" according to his official website. On July 28, 2015, a state grand jury indicted Paxton on two counts of securities fraud (felony) and one count of failing to register with state securities regulators (felony). The complainants in the case are Joel Hochberg, a Florida businessman and Sen. Byron Cook, a member (R) of the Texas House. Paxton and Cook were former friends and roommates while serving together in the Texas House, who were members of the same investment club. Three special prosecutors are leading the state's case. The state is prosecuting Paxton because of his promotion of Servergy Inc., a technology company, to investors in 2011. Prosecutors say that Paxton promoted Servergy to investors (raising $840,000) and failed to mention he was receiving 100,000 shares of stock from the company in return. Paxton says the 100,000 shares of the stock of the company that he received from Servergy's CEO were a gift, and not compensation. On August 3, 2015 following the grand jury indictment, Paxton was arrested. He pleaded not guilty. Paxton says "the case against him as a political witch-hunt." Paxton and his supporters suggest that Cook's complaint, several years after the Servergy deal, was political payback because Cook is a moderate and Paxton is a far-right tea party conservative. Ken Paxton's Wife, State Senator Angela Paxton sponsored Senate Bill 860 which "would allow the Texas Attorney General's Office — the same one run by her husband, Ken Paxton — to oversee a new state program that would allow the marketing of certain investments without a license." according to the Dallas Observer.