Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked a judge to jail former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), accusing him of continuing to fundraise for the Texas Democrats’ walkout in violation of a court order.
In a motion filed in Tarrant County, Paxton asked that O’Rourke be locked up in light of “disparaging” statements he made about the temporary injunction and his continued violation of the order, which blocked O’Rourke from fundraising for the 54 Texas Democrats who’ve left the state to deny Republicans a quorum to vote on GOP-friendly redistricting efforts.
″[H]e still thinks he’s above the law, so I’m working to put him behind bars,” Paxton said of O’Rourke, who represented Texas as a Democrat in Congress from 2013 to 2019 and now leads the political action committee Powered by People after failed runs for the Senate, White House and Texas governor’s seat.
The attorney general pointed to comments O’Rourke made at a rally Saturday in Fort Worth, telling the crowd, “There are no refs in this game, fuck the rules.” But those remarks were made as part of his call for blue states to counteract Republicans’ redistricting efforts by redrawing their lines in Democrats’ favor ― not in the context of violating the court order Paxton secured against him last week.
O’Rourke called out Paxton for mischaracterizing his remarks and said he’s seeking penalties against him for including them in the filing.
“He’s lying about me to try to silence us,” O’Rourke posted on social media, adding: “We alerted the Court that the AG’s office blatantly lied in its filing. We’re seeking maximum sanctions in response to his abuse of office.”
Paxton’s motion also pointed to O’Rourke’s remarks at that rally telling the crowd that “one of the worst things that we can do to Ken Paxton is to choose to donate to have the backs” of the Democrats who walked out, urging them to text a number that redirects to an ActBlue fundraiser.
“He is trying to stop us from raising the resources they need to ultimately prevail and come through and we are not going to let him stop us,” O’Rourke continued at the rally. The Democrats who walked out incur a daily $500 fee for their absences, along with other costs associated with travel and lawsuits against them.
In his Tuesday request to Tarrant County District Judge Megan Fahey, who was appointed in 2019 by Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Paxton called for O’Rourke to be “confined to jail unless and until he demonstrates a willingness to abide by the Court’s orders pending the outcome of this lawsuit.” He previously referred to the funds O’Rourke has raised as “Beto Bribes.”
When Fahey sided with Paxton last week, she determined that O’Rourke and Power to the People were violating state law by “raising and utilizing political contributions from Texas consumers to pay for the personal expenses of Texas legislators.”
In an MSNBC appearance over the weekend, O’Rourke said he had no problem violating the injunction.
“We’re not giving in, we’re not giving up, we’re not going to go away,” he said. “We’re gonna fight these people, and we’re gonna fight them until we win.”