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DALLAS (AP) – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has spent years dodging legal and public relations blows that could have kept others away from politics. The Republican has so far been too cunning for political opponents and prosecutors, winning re-election and rising to national notoriety as a conservative crusader even on felony charges.
But the criminal allegations of the top Paxton MPs set it up to take on a formidable new adversary: a federal prosecutor with a team of seasoned FBI agents and experience sending corrupt officials to jail.
Paxton has not been charged with a crime in the months since eight senior attorney general officials reported him to the FBI. for corruption, abuse of power and other alleged offenses committed in helping a wealthy donor attempt to push back his own federal investigation. Federal investigators are looking into the attorney general’s actions and his relationship with Nate Paul, an Austin real estate developer who employs a woman with whom Paxton is said to have had an extramarital affair.
San Antonio-based Assistant US Attorney Joe Blackwell is overseeing the effort, according to a person familiar with the investigation who insisted on anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
Paxton has denied any wrongdoing. His recent unsuccessful trial in an attempt to overturn the presidential election raised questions as to whether he was seeking protection from a powerful ally – President Donald Trump.
The West Texas Attorney’s Office declined to comment or make Blackwell available for an interview. Federal prosecutors and the FBI generally do not confirm ongoing investigations.
Blackwell, who coordinates public integrity cases in an area stretching more than 500 miles to El Paso, is a tough but fair prosecutor, according to former colleagues and opposing lawyers. He has a knack for summing up the complex facts of white-collar investigations, a down-to-earth demeanor and a slight Louisiana accent that endears him to juries.
“He’s probably the best trial attorney I’ve ever seen,” said Sean O’Connell, a Virginia attorney who worked with Blackwell as a federal prosecutor in Texas.
Blackwell, 45, received his law degree from Louisiana State University in 2000. Before joining the US attorney’s office, he worked as a military attorney and in private practice, former colleagues said.
Blackwell handled a variety of immigration, narcotics, financial crime, and other affairs in El Paso before moving to San Antonio, where he began pursuing more complex white collar cases. His most publicized case was the money laundering and fraud trial of former Senator Carlos Uresti in 2018.
Erica Benites Giese, who was a senior federal prosecutor in San Antonio during the trial, said Blackwell had made a “very passionate” argument that Uresti deserved a prison sentence and that a judge gave the Democratic lawmaker 12 years to long time.. But Blackwell is not the kind of prosecutor “who just wants their head against their wall,” she said.
“No politics play into his analysis at all,” said Benites Giese, who is now in private practice.
Politics, however, were part of Paxton’s defense strategy.
The Attorney General has long used political connections and legal maneuvers to block the prosecution of his government securities fraud case. Five years after Paxton pleaded not guilty, it is still unclear where or when he will be tried.
More recently, Paxton’s failed effort to have the United States Supreme Court The rejection of Joe Biden’s presidential victory sparked speculation that the attorney general was seeking a preventive pardon in the final weeks of the Trump administration. Paxton’s defense attorney, Philip Hilder, declined to comment.
A broad pardon would exclude federal prosecution. But that wouldn’t necessarily end the Paxton investigation, according to David Crump, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center. He said it was possible for the FBI to forward its findings to state prosecutors.
People who know Blackwell have said he is unlikely to be scared or postponed if the government decides to take one. And he’s more than capable of playing legal hardball.
During Urresti’s trial, Blackwell was able to convince the judge to remove the senator’s attorney, Mikal Watts, for conflict of interest. Watts said he still disagrees with Urresti’s decision and final sentencing, but as aggressive as Blackwell may be, he is also ethical.
“He’ll try the case one-on-one and let the jury decide,” Watts said. “Joe is a guy I would trust my wife with for a weekend.”
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Follow Jake Bleiberg: https://twitter.com/jzbleiberg.
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