Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants the records in his divorce case to remain private.
In a court filing earlier this week, Paxton’s lawyer argued that the case records should remain sealed because the media organizations arguing for their release want to “invade and publicize the most sensitive aspects of the Paxtons’ marital and private lives.” He added state law also does not require the records to be made public, calling the attempt to access them an “unprecedentedly broad and intrusive request.”
“The mere fact that a person holding or seeking public office is going through a divorce provides the public with no greater interest in or right to private information about that person,” the lawyer argued.
District Judge Lyndsey Wynne, who is presiding over the case in Collin County, will decide whether the records remain sealed. There is a hearing scheduled for Dec. 19.
Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, declined to comment for this story.
Angela Paxton filed for divorce in July, accusing her husband of adultery. Soon after, she requested all records in the case be placed under seal, arguing that doing so would “not have an adverse affect on the public health or safety.”
The judge presiding at the time, Ray Wheless, agreed and made all the case records private, including those that had already been released. Wheless later recused himself from the case. While he did not give a reason why, he has longtime ties to the Paxtons and has made contributions to the attorney general’s campaign.
A group of eight media organizations in September requested the decision to seal be reversed. They are Dow Jones & Co. (publisher of The Wall Street Journal), The Washington Post, Hearst Newspapers (which owns the Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News), ProPublica, The Texas Lawbook, the Texas Observer, The Texas Tribune and The Texas Newsroom.
The media organizations argued that both the attorney general and his wife are elected officials subject to public scrutiny, and noted that Paxton has been accused of impropriety multiple times while in elected office, including fraud, abuse of office and self-dealing. He was impeached in 2023 but beat the charges.
Details of the couple’s assets, which were scrutinized during the impeachment process, will be a subject of the divorce case.
The Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit that does government watchdog work, filed a separate request to unseal. Paxton’s filing this week responded to both requests.
After a decade in statewide office, Paxton is not running for reelection as attorney general. He is challenging John Cornyn, a fellow Republican, for U.S. Senate. Wesley Hunt, a Republican congressman representing Houston, has also joined the primary race.
Paxton, a conservative Christian, has not publicly addressed the infidelity allegations and attributed the divorce to the work of political enemies.
