Travis County elections chief says Texas attorney general tried 'to intimidate me'

[TexasTowelie]

by Bridget Grumet


I am worried for our democracy.

So is Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir, the county’s tough-as-nails elections chief for the past 35 years. Which is why DeBeauvoir is finally speaking publicly about a serious threat she faced this year: an effort by Attorney General Ken Paxton to charge her with a crime for her handling of the 2020 election.

“I don’t take kindly to being threatened and (feeling like) I can’t speak back,” DeBeauvoir told me last week.

To be clear, Paxton did not succeed. (Nor did his office return multiple requests for comment for this piece.)

Earlier this year, Paxton’s office tried to indict DeBeauvoir on a charge of unlawfully obstructing a poll watcher, a Class A misdemeanor that could bring up to a year in jail. It was a petty and trumped-up charge, and it did not fly, not even in Paxton’s hand-picked venue of Williamson County, known for its more conservative leanings. A grand jury there returned a “no bill” in April.

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/columns/2021/12/20/grumet-travis-elections-chief-says-texas-ag-tried-to-intimidate-me/6493013001/

Paxton is a vindictive partisan POS.

[napi21]

1. Thanks for fighting back. hopefully, all those tumpian officials will get their ideas thrown out of

court. It makes you wonder how one man can stoke such loyalty to DT and such hatred toward anyone who doesn't kiss his a__.

[tanyev]

2. Paxton is vile. And he still hasn't gone to trial for his 2015 securities fraud indictment.

[Javaman]

3. I'm convinced that felon paxton is a sociopath. nt

[ancianita]

4. Hasn't she got legal recourse now?

She could now join the long line of lawyers in Texas who want the guy disbarred.

The complaint to the State Bar of Texas was initially dismissed by the Bar's chief disciplinary counsel, but was later revived by the Board of Disciplinary Appeals,[178] and the State Bar launched an investigation into Paxton.[79][179]

Another ethics complaint alleging Paxton's election challenges were unethical and seeking sanctions or disbarment was filed by Lawyers Defending American Democracy. Among the signers of the LDAD complaint were four former presidents of the State Bar of Texas and a former chair of the Texas Supreme Court grievance oversight committee.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Paxton#Ethics_complaints_pursuant_to_2020_election_challenges