Judge dismisses attempt to discipline Texas AG Ken Paxton’s top aide for trying to overturn the 2020 election

First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster speaks June 9 during a press conference in the William Clements Building in Austin. (Credit: Kylie Cooper/The Texas Tribune)

A district judge has thrown out the State Bar of Texas’ professional misconduct case against Brent Webster, Attorney General Ken Paxton’s top aide, for his work on a case that challenged the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Judge John Youngblood, a judge in Milam County who was assigned to the case in Williamson County court, sided with an argument by Webster that said letting the case move forward would violate the state constitution’s separation of powers because the state bar, an agent of the judicial branch, would be limiting the actions of the attorney general’s office, which is part of the executive branch.