Texas attorney general's deputy avoids discipline over 2020 election case

By Nate Raymond

Dec 31 (Reuters) - Texas' highest court on Tuesday rejected an effort by state bar regulators to discipline a top deputy to Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over a case his office brought challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The 7-2 ruling by the Texas Supreme Court dooms not only the case the state bar's disciplinary commission filed against First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster but also likely a separate lawsuit against Paxton that he is seeking to have tossed.

Justice Evan Young, writing for the majority, said the commission's case against Webster amounted to "second-guessing" the claims that Paxton's office made in filings with the U.S. Supreme Court in the election case and, therefore, violated state constitutional separation-of-powers principles.

"Were we to hold otherwise and instead allow collateral attacks like the commission’s lawsuit, we would improperly invade the executive branch’s prerogatives and risk the politicization and thus the independence of the judiciary," wrote Young, who like the other justices is a Republican.

Webster in a statement hailed the decision, saying the state's bar's actions amounted to "ridiculous attempts to wage legal warfare against us" and were "disgraceful, ridiculous, and a disservice to the people of Texas."

The State Bar of Texas declined to comment.

The disciplinary cases stemmed from a long-shot lawsuit that Texas filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in December 2020 seeking to overturn Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's victories in four swing states over Donald Trump, the then-president who is set to return to the White House on Jan. 20.

Paxton, a Trump ally, was counsel of record on the case, and Webster appeared on the initial pleadings. The Supreme Court swiftly dismissed the case days after it was filed, saying Texas did not have legal standing to pursue it.

In 2022, the State Bar of Texas' Commission for Lawyer Discipline filed separate lawsuits first against Webster and later against Paxton seeking to hold them to account for false statements it said they made about election fraud in their U.S. Supreme Court case.

Those cases were part of a flurry of efforts by state bar regulators nationally to impose discipline on Trump-aligned lawyers like Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman who facilitated Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

In Webster's case, a trial court judge initially dismissed the commission's case in 2021. But an immediate appeals court in El Paso last year revived the case, prompting Webster to pursue a further appeal.

The Texas Supreme Court's decision did not address the separate case against Paxton, which he is also seeking to have thrown out after an immediate appeals court allowed it to move forward.

But the logic of the decision would likely apply to his case. Paxton in a statement said the court's ruling had "ended this witch hunt against the leadership of my office."

The case is Webster v. Commission for Lawyer Discipline, Texas Supreme Court, No. 23-0694.

For Webster: Texas Solicitor General Aaron Nielson

For Commission for Lawyer Discipline: Michael Graham of the State Bar of Texas' Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel

Read more:

Texas justices weigh misconduct case against Ken Paxton deputy

Texas attorney general Paxton must face attorney ethics case, appeals court rules

Paxton deputy must face attorney ethics case, Texas appeals court rules

Judge says Texas Attorney General Paxton must face ethics lawsuit

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston)

((Nate.Raymond@thomsonreuters.com and Twitter @nateraymond; 347-243-6917; Reuters Messaging: nate.raymond.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))