Texas’ Attorney General Ken Paxton—reportedly under federal investigation for bribery—made a desperate play Tuesday to save the man currently in charge of the Justice Department: By suing four states that sealed the election for President-elect Joe Biden.
Paxton filed a brief in the Supreme Court, which adjudicates disputes between states, alleging that “significant and unconstitutional irregularities” in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan killed President Trump’s dreams of a second term. The Republican official’s suit does not disguise its partisan intentions, alleging unspecified unfair activity “in areas administered by local government under Democrat control and with populations with higher ratios of Democrat voters,” and calling on the nation’s highest bench to allow the GOP-controlled legislatures to appoint each state’s Electoral College delegation.
The suit makes no specific allegations of fraud, and the Republican-run statehouses have so far declined to intervene on the lame-duck commander-in-chief’s behalf. University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck predicted the Supreme Court would decline to hear the case.
Several of Paxton’s aides accused him of corruption in October, and the Associated Press reported last month that the FBI is probing his relationship with a wealthy donor.
