A couple of years ago, the private lawyers hired to prosecute the three felony charges against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton came up with a nickname for the clique of North Texas surrogates and supporters trying desperately to quash his criminal case. “Team Paxton,” they said, had spent the better part of two years demonizing pretty much anybody who played a role in Paxton’s 2015 indictments, from the special prosecutors and judges who oversaw the case to even the victims of Paxton’s alleged white-collar crimes. One wealthy Paxton supporter sued in an attempt to defund the prosecution. State lawmakers from Collin County—Paxton’s home turf, and one of the richest, reddest counties in the state—even tried to derail the case.
The special prosecutors called Team Paxton’s full-court press an “unparalleled and unprecedented” attempt to taint the local jury pool. They also stressed Paxton’s power and influence as a longtime lawmaker from the area, someone who in 2014 became the first statewide elected official from Collin County since the 1860s. Almost every officeholder in Collin County either contributed money to Paxton or obtained their position with his help, the prosecutors argued, writing in one court filing, “Paxton is a political powerhouse in Collin County, where he enjoys the ultimate home field advantage.”
In March 2017, a state judge agreed with the prosecutors and transferred the case to Harris County. Thanks to the efforts of Team Paxton, however, the case has been delayed for so long that any trial now seems as far away as it did four years ago. But when, or perhaps if, his case goes to trial, Paxton still wants a home-field advantage. Over the past week, his lawyers have filed legal motions attempting to move the case back to Collin County, largely rehashing the same arguments they made two years ago.
