DALLAS - Newly inaugurated Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will not face prosecution from the Public Integrity Unit of the embattled Travis County District Attorney's Office for violation of state securities law.
Paxton was reprimanded and fined $1,000 by the State Securities Board in 2014 for soliciting investment clients without registering as a financial advisor. A former state senator, Paxton was running to succeed then-Attorney General Greg Abbott when the fine was levied.
"Our investigation did not find any additional criminal activity over which our office has venue, so we are concluding Travis County's involvement in this matter," said Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, whose office includes the state's Public Integrity Unit.
Spokesmen for Paxton have said the issue was related to an "administrative oversight" and was resolved after he paid the fine.
Lehmberg said the matter would be referred to the district attorneys in Dallas and Collin counties.
The Democratic Travis County DA is at the center of a felony charges against former Gov. Rick Perry, who line-item vetoed funding for the PIU after Lehmberg refused to step down and allow Perry to name her replacement. Perry is accused of abusing the power of his office. The state's longest-serving governor maintained he was within his rights to threaten Lehmberg with the state funding veto and then follow through after Lehmberg was convicted of driving while intoxicated.
The PIU did not file the charges against Perry but handed the investigation to a special prosecutor who led a grand jury to indict the governor.
Perry's defense team failed to get the case dismissed in a hearing before Republican State District Court Judge Bert Richardson on Jan. 27.
"Texas law clearly precludes a trial court from making a pretrial determination regarding the constitutionality of a state penal or criminal procedural statute as the statue applies to a particular defendant," Richardson wrote.
Abbott, who succeeded Perry as governor, denounced Richardson's decision in a public statement.
"The Texas governor is endowed by our Constitution with the authority to veto legislation, and it is outrageous and inappropriate that a Governor would be prosecuted for exercising that authority," Abbott said. "The continued legal proceedings against Governor Perry conflict with the authority granted to all Governors by the Texas Constitution, and I trust they will be ultimately resolved in a manner consistent with the Constitution."
