Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) on Wednesday signaled he was open to getting the FBI involved in the redistricting battle after initially pushing back on arguments for the law enforcement agency to intervene.
“I’m in full support of using every possible method to secure a quorum and hold lawless Democrat legislators accountable for abandoning Texans, including involving federal authorities and the FBI,” Paxton said in a statement to The Hill.
His comments come after an appearance he made on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast Tuesday, in which he criticized Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) call to have the FBI help bring back Texas Democrats who had left the state to break quorum, thereby stalling GOP efforts to advance newly drawn congressional maps.
“Let me first say, this is a state issue,” Paxton said, when asked by Bannon about the state of play in Texas and calls for the FBI to get involved.
“I don’t know what the FBI would have to do with this, nothing. This is a purely state issue, so we are focused on alternatives that we can implement at the state level,” Paxton continued.
Some experts that spoke with The Hill expressed skepticism that the FBI had the jurisdiction to compel Democrats to return back to Texas.
“I don’t see why the FBI would be involved in this at all. I mean this is Texas politics and the FBI has no business trying to enforce Texas state law,” explained Richard Painter, who served as associate counsel to the president in the White House Counsel’s office during former President George W. Bush’s second term.
Painter, now a law professor at the University of Minnesota, suggested the only federal law being violated was gerrymandering – something he noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has been reluctant to address.
Paxton noted that one of those options would be to arrest the lawmakers. He noted that if lawmakers don’t return when the Legislature meets on Friday, “then we are going to file motions to try to remove some of these legislators from office.”
Bannon asked Paxton if arresting the lawmakers meant having Texas Rangers travel to Illinois to arrest the Texas Democrats who fled or if the rangers needed to be within the state to arrest lawmakers.
“So Steve, I can tell you in a couple days exactly what that means,” Paxton said. “I can’t tell you right now. It’s part of what’s going on.”
Paxton’s apparent reversal on the issue comes as he mounts an increasingly tense primary challenge against Cornyn in next year’s Senate race.
Cornyn, who has trailed Paxton in recent polls, wrote a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday urging the FBI to try to help Republicans bring back Democrats who fled the state earlier this week.
“The FBI has tools to aid state law enforcement when parties cross state lines, including to avoid testifying or fleeing a scene of a crime,” Cornyn wrote. “Specifically, I am concerned that legislators who solicited or accepted funds to aid in their efforts to avoid their legislative duties may be guilty of bribery or other public corruption offenses.”
President Trump said later Tuesday the FBI “may have to” get involved.
“No, I know they want them back, not only the attorney general, the governor wants them back,” the president said. “If you look, I mean, the governor of Texas is demanding they come back. So, a lot of people are demanding they come back.”
Paxton announced Tuesday he would seek judicial orders “declaring that runaway Democrats who fail to appear by the Speaker’s deadline have vacated their office.”
“The people of Texas elected lawmakers, not jet-setting runaways looking for headlines. If you don’t show up to work, you get fired,” Paxton said.
But Abbott has already started the process of removing lawmakers, filing an emergency petition Tuesday to the Texas Supreme Court in an effort to oust Texas House Democratic Caucus Leader Gene Eu from his seat.
Paxton has been running to Cornyn’s right in the race. The primary is the latest in a nasty and long-simmering battle between the two men.
Cornyn campaign senior adviser Matt Mackowiak criticized Paxton’s initial comments on Bannon’s podcast, saying in a statement he was “undermining President Trump and Sen. Cornyn’s effort to enlist the FBI to give Texas law enforcement additional tools to locate and return these AWOL Democratic House members.”
“Memo to Ken Paxton: The adults who are in Texas and on the job will handle it from here. Go back to the hotel pool,” he added.
Paxton hit back at Mackowiak, calling Cornyn and his campaign “transparently desperate.”
“While I’m focused on doing everything in my power to actually solve the problem, John Cornyn and his team are obsessively making bizarre posts about me on X,” Paxton said. “It’s so transparently desperate that you almost have to feel bad for him.”
Updated: 5:23 p.m. ET
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