All of Ken Paxton’s lawsuits against the federal government have offered the possibility of notable revelations, but this one has the potential to be extra spicy.
Texas sued the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday attempting to preserve all records pertaining to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into President-elect Donald Trump.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) complaint on November 8 requesting specific records from Smith’s investigation, including “all Communications from any current or former member of the Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith to any New York State governmental office since November 18, 2022,” as well as “documents memorializing the … final reasoning to request that a trial against President-elect Trump to start in January of 2024.”
Texas expressed concerns in court documents that the DOJ’s history with special counsels is “regrettably riddled with attempts to avoid transparency,” specifically referencing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s infamous Crossfire Hurricane incident in 2020. Mueller’s team allegedly repeatedly wiped their phones after an investigation into the DOJ’s handling of a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probe into Trump’s purportedly unlawful links to Russia.
The suit filed on November 11 states that Paxton “fears that many releasable records — including those that he sought — will never see daylight. That is not because the DOJ has any legal reason to withhold them…”
“Rather, Attorney General Paxton has a well-founded belief as set forth herein that Defendants will simply destroy the records.”
Paxton states in the filing that since Trump won the election “it is clear that both Jack Smith’s office, and his prosecution of the President, will soon end.” The DOJ’s own policies do not permit bringing charges against a sitting President of the United States as it “would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.”
“I will not allow the corrupt weaponization of the United States government to be swept under the rug as Jack Smith and others who unjustly targeted President Trump attempt to avoid accountability,” Paxton said in a press release.
Texas’ suit was filed in the United States District Court Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division.
Obviously I hope Paxton prevails and that Smith (and the entire Biden Administration)’s attempts to illegally wage lawfare against Trump to thwart the will of American voters gets exposed. However (and here we insert the usual I Am Not A Lawyer caveat), it appears that Paxton will have difficulty in establishing standing for the lawsuit to proceed. Trump is not a resident of Texas, and it may be difficult to establish that the State of Texas has suffered direct harm from Smith’s actions.
However, in this case I’m wondering if Paxton has filed the case on a timeline that either the Biden Administration doesn’t respond in time, or that the second Trump Administration can file the response, proving a mechanism by which the Trump Administration settles the lawsuit by releasing all requested documents that may otherwise be held up by claims of executive privilege, garden variety DOJ stonewalling, etc.
It’s an interesting gambit. We’ll see how it plays out…
Tags: 2024 Presidential Race, Democrats, Donald Trump, Elections, Jack Smith, Ken Paxton, Lawsuit, Mary Elise Cosgray, Texas, The Texan News
While I agree with you that standing will be a convenient excuse for the federal court to dodge this, I have a hard time with that.
Any misbehavior of the federal government, particularly the DOJ, creates enormous direct damages to any US citizen, let alone governmental units at the state or local level., IMO. We should all have standing.
Unfortunately, the definition of standing is designed to allow a lot of “kicking the can down the road.”
“Paxton will have difficulty in establishing standing for the lawsuit to proceed.”
The purpose of this lawsuit is not to obtain Jack Smith’s court documents. Jim Jordan has already pursued this angle. Ken Paxton is obliquely announcing his availability for the US AG position.
Trump ought accept Paxton’s bid. Ken is the kind of street fighter that the incoming administration desperately needs.
President-Elect Donald J Trump has announced that Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida has been nominated to be Attorney General of the United States.
This is war to the hilt…Red War.
The whole “standing” bullshit is a means to prevent anyone from taking action against something the establishment doesn’t want questioned.
That’s how they killed all the lawsuits over the 2020 elections… Nobody had “standing” to challenge anything. By rights, any legal voter in the US should have had automatic standing to sue over that election because their vote was effectively taken away by the malfeasance of the various crooked schemes that gave the election to Biden.
If they don’t fix this crap going forward, a lot of people are going to conclude that the only way of fixing this system is to blow it up. I really hope the entrenched idjit class we have running the country recognizes this for what it is: The normies in the middle telling them “Enough is enough…”
If they don’t? Well, the Dutch solution beckons…
(Reference for those who don’t know… The Dutch once ate a prime minister.)
I think everyone is missing the FOIA aspect to this. Anyone has the right to make a FOIA request – you don’t need specific standing to do so. Paxton’s suit is in support of his own FOIA request. If it is struck down, it will most likely be on the grounds that as the DOJ hasn’t exceeded the time to respond, there is no case or controversy to be litigated. Paxton has tried to create one by claiming that past practices by other special counsels demonstrate the need for a preliminary injunction to prevent destruction of documents by this special counsel. I’m not sure that works (or should), but it is clever. If he gets a sympathetic judge, he may win.
Not least, he has demonstrated that he will be a good choice after Gaetz flames out, as I suspect he will.
Under the Freedom of Information Act [5 U.S.C. § 552] any person – United States citizen or not – can make a FOIA request. AG Paxton is automatically entitled to the information he requested of DoJ, subject to the nine statutory exemptions.
Every person whose name appears on the initial Freedom of Information Act request for disclosure has automatic standing to sue in U.S. District Court to force production under FOIA. Presumably AG Paxton and/or his office appears on the FOIA request which is the subject of this lawsuit. Hence, he has standing.
Name one Democrat you want anywhere near your mouth. Go on, I’ll wait.
Tatsumaki Senpukyaku?
Witty!
Everything should be OK with Gaetz heading up the DOJ. I don’t expect him to serve four years, though.
“Name one Democrat you want anywhere near your mouth. Go on, I’ll wait.”
With enough barbecue sauce, anything is palatable…
I note with interest that Travis County District Attorney Garza has sued AG Paxton about the ruling in favor of KXAN Defender’s request for information surrounding the $115k of security funds that Travis County Commissioners allocated in apparent secrecy, which was discovered months later.