During an interview with Tucker Carlson, Paxton explained how a local court threw out nearly 1,000 cases of voter fraud that his office was prosecuting.
Paxton said it didn’t make sense for the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals to dismiss over 900 cases of voter fraud and deny him the right to prosecute criminal matters.
“We were fully busy prosecuting voter fraud, and suddenly the Court of Criminal Appeals – all Republicans – said nope, it’s unconstitutional for the attorney general to be in court because these are the executive branch. That was their reasoning,” Paxton said. “They said that was a ‘judicial’ function, so I could no longer be in court.”
The Republican told Carlson that his office prosecuted more than enough cases to prove voter fraud. However, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan blocked them all.
Paxton then criticized the Texas voting system, which supports mail-in ballots and not requiring people to provide an ID as other forms of voting do.
“When you change it to mailing it out to everybody … We have no idea who’s voting … That’s the system that they like because we can’t prove voter fraud if we set up a system that’s completely open,” Paxton added.
The attorney general claimed Republicans on the Court of Criminal Appeals are attempting to set him up for defeat, allowing voter fraud to happen right before their eyes.
Paxton was investigating those who committed voter fraud and those who helped run elections.
Most of Paxton’s probes into election workers focus on allegations of obstructing a poll watcher, which is banned. Texas is one of the few states where blocking the view or limiting the movements of poll watchers can bring criminal penalties.
Paxton has been a vocal skeptic of President Joe Biden’s presidential win against former President Trump.
Between January 2020 and September 2022, the Republican’s office opened at least 390 cases looking into potential election crimes. During the time, Paxton’s office secured five election-related convictions.