Oct 5, 2022 - Politics & Policy

Texas AG ordered to testify after allegedly fleeing home to dodge subpoena

Erin Doherty

Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, US, on Friday, Aug. 5, 2022 — Ken Paxton speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas on Aug. 5. Photo: Dylan Hollingsworth/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A federal judge ordered Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) to testify in a lawsuit related to abortion rights funding in a reversal from a previous ruling that quashed the subpoena.

Driving the news: "The Court will not sanction a scheme where Paxton repeatedly labels his threats of prosecution as real for the purpose of deterrence and as hypothetical for the purposes of judicial review," U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman wrote in the filing on Tuesday.

"Because the Court was forced to decide Paxton's motion to quash on a very limited timeframe ... and because the Court relied on Defendant's representations as accurate depictions of when Paxton had been served and notified of his expected testimony, the Court issued its ruling on incomplete facts," per the filing.

The big picture: Paxton fled his home last week after a process server arrived to try to serve a subpoena for a federal court hearing in a suit brought by nonprofits seeking to fund out-of-state abortions for Texans.

Paxton said that he left his home "to avoid a stranger lingering outside my home and showing concern about the safety and well-being of my family."
The judge rescinded the subpoena after the process server alleged that Paxton ran away from him and avoided him for more than an hour inside his house before leaving in a truck driven by his wife.

Go deeper... Texas bar sues to punish AG Paxton for attempt to overturn election

Add Axios on Google

Texas AG ordered to testify after allegedly fleeing home to dodge subpoena

What to read next