Republicans are saying little about whether they’ll support indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton, but some tea party Republicans are still standing behind him.
For some of those who served alongside Paxton during his time in the Texas House, there is no question whether he deserved to be indicted for securities fraud. Mineola State Rep. Bryan Hughes is a longtime friend of Paxton and is one of a handful of tea party Republicans who has jumped to his defense.
“I’ve known Ken for a longtime, I know his character and I know he tells the truth and so I’m very comfortable speaking in support of him,” Hughes said.
Before Paxton was investigated for what ultimately led to a 3-count indictment related to security fraud, a Texas Securities Board fined Paxton for referring clients to a friend’s investment firm without telling them he was collecting a fee, and for not being properly licensed.. It’s something Hughes sees as an oversight.
“It was a technical reporting violation and the Texas State Securities Board issued a civil penalty and they chose not to refer for a criminal prosecution. So this is unprecedented for something like that to be blown into what this is,” Hughes reiterated.
Apparently not all former legislative colleagues feel the same way. The unsealed indictments say Paxton “engaged in fraud” by selling thousands of dollars of stock in a technology to State Rep. Byron Cook of Corsicana without telling Cook he was collecting a fee.
