An interesting segment on the 08/06/25 edition of MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes (Velshi subbing) delved into the widely reported “strategy session” that was supposed to take place at Vice President JD Vance’s residence to deal with the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. The scandal has engulfed the Trump White House and is leading to accusations of a coverup.
#BREAKING: Velshi in for Hayes: "…a coordinating session between a VP & DOJ officials is a sort of thing that Republicans would have made into a scandal before the Trump era, in fact, come to think of it, they did. Back in 2016, after a 30 minute get-together on an airport… pic.twitter.com/ZwAGcl9j0s
The MSNBC segment aptly pointed out the hypocritical Republican reaction back in 2016, when then AG Loretta Lynch was spotted at an airport tarmac chatting with former President Bill Clinton. The DOJ was at that time investigating Hillary Clinton–then the Democratic presidential candidate–over her email server. Many Republicans were very outraged by that meeting, accusing Bill Clinton and Lynch of conspiring to bury the email server probe. The firestorm surrounding the tarmac meeting almost led to AG Lynch’s resignation.
It is therefore quite interesting how the same Republican party which pushed for Lynch’s resignation sighting DOJ independence, is now very comfortable with the prospect of current AG Pam Bondi sitting down with Trump admin officials for a “strategy session” regarding the Epstein scandal which implicates President Trump.
What happened to their clamour for DOJ independence? It is a very hypocritical stance, and MSNBC’s All In crew deserves major kudos for calling it out
Texas Attorney-General and his wife State Senator Angela Paxton
A lot has been made about the corruption of the Trump administration and Republicans generally at the national level, and deservedly so. Very little however is said about the entrenched corruption among Republicans at the state level, especially in so-called “Red States” like Texas that have a GOP trifecta–control of the Judiciary, Legislature and Executive Branch.
Hopefully this bombshell piece by Texas Tribune will open the door to more coverage of the entrenched GOP Corruption in the Lone Star State and other “Red States”
1/ NEW: Sen. Angela Paxton has filed a bill that would give Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — her husband — more regulatory power.
Including regulatory power related to state securities law.
The Texas Tribune piece above goes into great detail about how State Senator Angela Paxton’s new bill opens her up to charges of corruption. So in order to avoid redundancy, Yours Truly will do what he does best–cut to the chase and tell grassroots Democrats what is corrupt/swampy about Senator Paxton’s bill.
You will remember that in 2015, Texas Attorney-General was indicted and charged for violating a Texas securities law–essentially giving investment advice that he was not authorized to give. In Texas, as in many other states, one is required to register with the state board before giving investment advice. Giving investment advice without registering with the state board is a third degree felony in Texas (2-10 years jail). There are many reasons for the state board registration requirement, key among them curbing corruption/self dealing. If I am a major shareholder at a large Texas company, and I am advising someone/ a corporation to make a major investment in the same company, the folks at the Texas state board can easily sniff out the self dealing because they will have records of all my financial entanglements. Simply put, it is a very important anti-corruption measure to have investment advisers register with the Texas state board.
Angela Paxton the wife of Texas AG Ken Paxton ran for office in 2018 and was elected Texas State Senator for Senate District 8(SD 8). One of her first actions as a Texas legislator was introducing Senate Bill 860 (SB860) which among other things, seeks to make it legal for someone to give investment advice without registering with the Texas state board–the same thing her husband is currently in trouble for. It’s not hard to see why the naked self-dealing/corruption that is inherent in Sen Paxton’s SB860 has sparked outrage in Texas. Sadly however, this is just a sample of the kind of entrenched corruption that is commonplace in “Red States” like Texas that never get the mainstream media attention they deserve. Hopefully from here on out the Texas Tribune and other major Texas publications will expose instances of public corruption like the one exhibited by the Paxtons. Yours Truly will certainly make #TexasSwamp a major topic of debate especially as we approach the 2020 elections.
Bottom line if Democrats hope to turn Texas blue, they have to make the entrenched GOP Corruption a key campaign issue in 2020 and beyond. Maybe just maybe this may be the key to Democrats capturing the coveted US Senate seat currently held by John Cornyn in 2020.
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Email author at admin@grassrootsdempolitics.com
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