Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has probably been all over your news and Twitter feeds ever since reports that he fled his home to avoid being served a subpoena began circulating online on Monday. In fact, “Ken Paxton” and “attorney general” were trending on Twitter on Tuesday morning, and searches for “Ken Paxton” were also high on real-time Google trends in the U.S.
So this is what you need to know about who Paxton is, what he says happened on Monday, and why he was being served in the first place. Who is Ken Paxton? Paxton has served as the attorney general of Texas since 2015, making him the state’s top law enforcement officer leading more than 4,000 employees in 38 divisions and 117 offices around Texas, as his official bio page notes. He also previously served in the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas state Senate. His wife, Angela Paxton, is a state senator. He is also a close ally and supporter of former President Donald Trump, appearing with his wife at the rally that preceded the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol complex to give a speech on his failed legal efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. And he’s been in the spotlight for other legal issues, such as his top deputies reporting him to the FBI in September 2020 for alleged bribery, abuse of office and other crimes. Why was Ken Paxton being subpoenaed this week? According to a federal court affidavit shared by the Texas Tribune, Paxton was being served a subpoena to testify at a federal court hearing on Tuesday. This was part of a lawsuit filed last August by several nonprofit abortion funds trying to stop state prosecutors …