Texas Solicitor General Keeps Out of Election Prosecution, AG Retains Private Company

Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins has kept his distance from Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit to overturn election results by the United States Supreme Court in four battlefield states.

The Republican AG has asked the court to allow a motion challenging the results in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin by allowing lawmakers in each state to choose their voters, instead of voters. The costume is the latest long-standing effort to reverse President Donald Trump’s defeat in the United States that President-elect Biden has already secured.

Paxton’s filing on Tuesday did not include the name Hawkins, who was appointed by Paxton in 2018, and generally argues and defends the interests of the state in Supreme Court cases.

Hawkins and his team typically battle the state’s most important legal issues in America’s highest courtrooms. Last month, he went to the Supreme Court with the aim of overturning the affordable care law.

Unusually, Paxton, a close Trump ally, has signed up as a senior lawyer, a rare role for any state official who is usually not involved in important cases. Brent Webster, the AG’s chief deputy also signed the lawsuit, but Hawkins and his deputies are clearly absent from the case. Instead, the agency’s special advocate is Lawrence Joseph, who appears to be an outside lawyer.

Newsweek contacted the office of Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins for comment.

Trump and his closest allies have called the trial a “game changer”, however, most legal experts have harshly criticized the challenge, with some calling the trial “crazy”, “utter trash” and “a statement. press posing as a trial. “

Texas GOP Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, a former Texas AG, have yet to comment, but Gov. Greg Abbott praised the suit. Speaking to a reporter, Abbott said the case “attempts to speed up the process, bringing certainty and clarity to the entire electoral process. The United States of America needs it.”

Attorneys general in the four states Paxton has sued were quick to condemn the effort.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, called Paxton’s efforts a “publicity stunt, not serious legal advocacy.”

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, denounced the trial “beyond injustice, beyond recklessness” as an “attack on our fair and free electoral system.” Shapiro also called pro-Trump efforts to overturn the election results “a circus.”

A spokesman for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, said Paxton was “constitutionally, legally and factually wrong about Georgia.”

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, said he felt “sorry for Texans that their taxes are wasted in such an embarrassing lawsuit.”