AUSTIN — Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced that he will be filing a criminal complaint against the House Board of Managers after they publicly released his personal address.
The board published unredacted documents online that included Paxton’s home address and coordinates after their unsuccessful impeachment effort, as reported by The Dallas Express.
Mitch Little, one of the attorneys who defended Paxton during the impeachment trial, suggested that the alleged doxing very likely violated a recently passed law that penalizes the release of someone’s private address.
Texas Penal Code § 42.074 states, “A person commits an offense if the person posts on a publicly accessible website the residence address or telephone number of an individual with the intent to cause harm or a threat of harm to the individual or a member of the individual’s family or household.”
In a press release, Paxton said, “My family and I receive multiple threats of violence. The legislature passed an anti-doxing law to stop the far left from using intimidation tactics like leaking or releasing personal information that would allow nefarious individuals to do harm to elected officials.”
“The impeachment managers clearly have [sic] a desire to threaten me with harm when they released this information last week,” Paxton continued. “I’m imploring their local prosecutors in each individual district to investigate the criminal offenses that have been committed.”
When releasing the documents, Rep. Andrew Murr (R-Junction) and Rep. Ann Johnson (D-Houston) claimed that the information included items that were not presented during the impeachment trial due to “time limits,” “issues with timely responses,” “witnesses choosing to plead the Fifth Amendment,” and “multiple procedural decisions made during the course of the impeachment trial.”
“The House Board of Managers maintains that overwhelming and uncontroverted testimony and evidence was presented during the impeachment trial in support of the Articles of Impeachment against Attorney General Ken Paxton,” the board concluded. “The information now shared publicly with this letter provides a clearer foundation for that.”
After considerable blowback denounced the inclusion of Paxton’s private address, the original documents were taken down and replaced with redacted versions. The second set, however, still included the coordinates to Paxton’s residence.
Some House managers claimed not to have been consulted in Murr and Johnson’s decision to release the documents.
Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano) said, “… [D]id I know sensitive information that should’ve been redacted would be made public? And am I frustrated it was? Hell no I didn’t know, and hell yes I’m frustrated,” per the Houston Chronicle.
Murr responded to the allegations on Monday, claiming:
“The law that Mr. Paxton cites in threatening to file criminal complaints requires an intent that does not exist in this case. Lawyers for the House managers worked diligently to make redactions where appropriate, and when the House learned that certain unredacted information had been placed online, the information was timely addressed…
“Mr. Paxton’s address has been listed on the Senate website in Impeachment trial exhibits since mid-August, yet he never called for the Senate to remove it. It has also been listed on Travis County websites under his name or the name of his trust for years.”