Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was indicted 5 years ago. He still hasn't gone to trial.
July 2020 marks five years since Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was indicted on felony securities fraud charges. The criminal case against him has been a cloud over his head during nearly all of his time in statewide office, including a narrow reelection win in 2018.
The indictments are now old enough, as progressive groups have cheekily noted, to attend kindergarten.
Paxton is accused of persuading investors to buy stock in a technology firm without disclosing that he would be compensated for it. He has maintained his innocence and criticized the prosecution as politically motivated.
Why is it taking so long to take the state’s top lawyer to trial? Since the case began, it has been delayed by side battle after side battle, including a still-unresolved dispute over how much to pay the special prosecutors handling the case and a yearslong dispute over where Paxton should be tried. Paxton’s case has bounced from trial courts in North Texas, all the way up to the state’s highest court for criminal matters, back down to a trial court in Harris County — and it may go back to his home in Collin County again before the issues are resolved.
Check out our timeline below of the case’s twists and turns. We’ll update it with new stories from The Texas Tribune and other outlets as the legal battle proceeds.
Information about the authors
Learn about The Texas Tribune’s policies, including our partnership with The Trust Project to increase transparency in news.