Grand Jury Looming, Paxton Assails Prosecutors
A grand jury will soon decide whether Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton should be indicted for securities fraud, but the battle for public opinion is already kicking into high gear.
A Collin County grand jury is expected to begin hearing evidence against Paxton soon. It remains unclear when the grand jury will start meeting, but local media on Tuesday spotted special prosecutors assigned to the case entering a Collin County courthouse with the Texas Rangers, who have been looking into Paxton's self-admitted violation of the state securities law last year.
In recent days, Paxton spokesman Anthony Holm has sharpened his criticism of the process, arguing that meddling by an outside lawyer has rendered impartiality "impossible." Holm has also criticized the special prosecutors, Houston attorneys Kent Schaffer and Brian Wice, as loose-lipped publicity hounds who lack the experience to handle such a high-profile prosecution.
"Normally, seasoned prosecutors are appointed to aid investigations," Holm wrote in an op-ed for the Austin American-Statesman published Monday. "Instead, these two defense lawyers have built incredibly lucrative practices defending people charged with crimes, including drug and child sex crimes — the very type of criminal Attorney General Paxton tries to put in prison. One wonders about the impartiality of the appointed special prosecutors when their trade is defending those charged with the most heinous of crimes."
Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/28/grand-jury-looming-paxtons-team-and-prosecutors-sp/
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