MCKINNEY, Texas _ The judge presiding over Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's criminal fraud case said he will soon issue a decision on whether to move Paxton's trials, delay them or even throw his charges out.
During a pretrial hearing, Judge George Gallagher said he would issue a ruling on all three questions on Thursday. He also put a firm gag order on all parties in the case, including Paxton, who was just this week gave an interview to The Dallas Morning News about his case.
"We're not going to have any more quotes to the press," Gallagher said.
Gallagher has three decisions to make. Prosecutors want to move the proceedings out of Collin County, saying they can't get a fair trial here because the jury pool would be tilted in Paxton's favor. They're also asking to delay the trials until their pay, which is currently on hold, is restarted.
Paxton, meanwhile, is arguing to have his three criminal fraud charges thrown out, arguing the grand jury was tainted. The jury indicted him in 2015, accusing Paxton of making undisclosed commissions by funneling clients to a friend's investment firm and persuading people to buy stock in a McKinney technology startup. His charges, one third-degree and two first-degree felonies, carry a maximum sentence of 99 years in prison and tens of thousands in fines.
During the Wednesday hearing, Paxton's attorneys rejected the prosecutors' claims that there has been a concerted effort in Collin County _ where Paxton has lived and worked for years _ to skew public opinion in Paxton's favor. They commissioned a poll, performed by longtime Republican pollster Glen Bolger, they argued showed they had no "home-team advantage."
Bolger's poll showed that of the 400 people surveyed, a majority were aware Paxton was indicted but few said they had enough facts to know if he was guilty or innocent. Of those who knew about the indictments, 14 percent thought he was guilty and 9 percent innocent, the poll said, and more people had changed their mind and now believed him guilty than compared to two years ago.
"If there's been a campaign, it's been pretty darn ineffective," said Bolger, who was commissioned by Paxton's team to survey eligible jurors in Collin County. "People's attitudes are not being significantly impacted by what has happened so far."
As the hearing was wrapping up, Gallagher also raised concerns that ethics rules may have been breached at an event that involved Republican donor Jeffory Blackard, a friend of Paxton's who is suing the county to block pay to the prosecution. The event was not discussed further, and neither prosecutors nor attorneys would give further details.
"We may have a problem here. We may have an ethical problem," said Gallagher, who added he was concerned by lawsuits filed "by folks that have a great deal of control in this county."
