AUSTIN – According to a sealed motion recently made public, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a motion to dismiss the indictment against him for securities fraud, arguing his rights to due process were violated, subverting the grand jury process illegally.
Paxton argued, among other things, that on July 7, 2015, when Paxton was first indicted, the three-year statute of limitations had already expired.
In March, Judge George Gallagher denied the motion. Gallagher has since been removed from the case.
“The grand jury materials provided by the court show that the pro tem lawyers misrepresented the law, turned a blind eye to legal inconveniences, and wove facts from whole cloth,” Paxton argued in the recently unsealed motion to dismiss. Conservative activist Aaron Harris posted the unsealed brief on his website Nov. 20.
Paxton also argued in his motion to dismiss that the grand jurors were instructed to indict without being told that “Paxton did not have to register with the State Securities Board because the entity that he worked under, Mowrey Capital Management, was itself federally registered.”
On July 7, 2015, Paxton was indicted by a grand jury in Collin County, Texas, for allegedly acting as an investment adviser representative without being registered with the State Securities Board.
A review of the grand jury materials was held in the judge’s chambers on Feb. 16 and materials related to the indictment were reviewed. Handwritten notes made by the jurors also indicate that Judge Christopher Oldner instructed them that they were dealing with an unusual case.
The motion to dismiss notes that “From these notations, one can infer that before special prosecutors presented evidence or witnesses regarding Paxton on the morning of July 6, 2017, Judge Oldner spoke directly to the 416th Grand Jury, priming them for an ‘unusual case’ against Paxton that required ‘DA recusal’ and ‘special prosecutors,’” and it also states “By calling the grand jurors’ attention to the ‘unique’ nature of the case and going against protocol and statute to instruct grand jurors regarding the Paxton hearings, Judge Oldner was likely to have more than ‘just a slight effect’ on the charging decision.”
There is a scheduling hearing on the criminal case set for Dec. 13 in Harris County.
Attorney General Paxton did not respond to a request for comment.