State Sen. Angela Paxton (via her campaign website)

What do you do if your husband is accused of committing a crime?

You come to his defense any way you can. If you’re a state senator and your husband is accused of committing a state crime — why, you can just introduce some legislation to make what he’s accused of doing not a crime.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is accused of serving as an investment adviser without registering with the state. His wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, introduced SB860 last Friday, Feb. 15, to make it not a crime to act as a financial adviser without registering with the state.

While the proposed law isn’t retroactive, if passed, it would have an effect on any trial, should one ever happen. Jurors would be likely to take notice that the defendant was on trial for something that’s no longer a crime and the defense would play that up.

In 2014, Texas issued a civil penalty against Paxton and in 2015 he was charged with criminal violations. Charges were filed in Collin County, but because of the expense of a trial for such a high-profile individual, the county doesn’t want to proceed. The case sat there through Paxton’s first term as attorney general and through his successful re-election campaign in 2018.

Angela Paxton called her bill “consumer protection legislation” that her constituents called for.

Mark Phariss, her opponent in the recent election, wrote on Twitter, “I campaigned for almost 1 yr for TX SD8; block-walked all 14 cities in SD8; attended more forums than I can count; answered numerous questionnaires, including @dallasnews’; met thousands upon thousands of voters. Not one person raised this issue. Not one!”

Of course the whole thing could backfire. If the proposed legislation ever got through committee and to the Senate floor and that body voted 1-30 against the bill, it would send a message to any jury that the Senate really, really opposes this type of corruption. But, of course, that won’t happen.

Texas Tribune had a great write up about it.

— David Taffet