Texas AG's office requested DPS records on transgender Texans

Flashback: Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill last year that requires public school students to play on sports teams based on their assigned sex at birth.

• In February, he ordered state agencies to investigate parents seeking gender-affirming care for their children.
• But, the Texas Supreme Court ruled the governor and attorney general don't have "statutory authority" to directly control the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services' investigatory decisions.

The intrigue: The Post's Molly Hennessy-Fiske writes that it isn't clear why the AG's office wanted driver's license data on transgender Texans.

• When asked who in the AG's office requested the data, a DPS spokesperson told the Post, "I cannot say."
• Paxton's office initially asked for the total number of changes from male to female and female to male broken down by month, and later asked for the numbers and "a list" of names, a state employee familiar with the request told the Post.
• DPS staff put together a list of roughly 16,000 gender changes between June 1, 2020, and June 30, 2022, but found it difficult to sort out which were changed for reasons other than a gender change.

Yes, but: DPS spokesperson Travis Considine told the Post the department advised the AG's office that the requested data didn't exist and could not accurately be produced.

• "Thus, no data of any kind was provided," Considine said.

What they're saying: Paxton's office did not respond to Axios' call seeking comment on the Post story.

• The Post says it asked the AG's office for records related to the data request and was told the office "has no information responsive to your request."

Of note: Paxton is still under felony indictment in a 2015 securities fraud case that keeps getting delayed.