HOUSTON — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's securities fraud trial will proceed after a judge denied his attorneys' motion to dismiss the charges.
This is the latest court date in his nine-year legal battle over alleged securities fraud.
Paxton is charged with securities fraud for allegedly recruiting investors for a Dallas-based tech company, but not telling them that he was being paid by the company to do so.
However, Paxton denies any wrongdoing.
These charges go back nearly a decade but issues over court venues, scheduling, and last year's impeachment trial have all delayed the process.
Paxton’s lawyers filed a motion recently to dismiss the charges, saying Paxton’s right to a speedy trial was violated.
However, prosecutors argued it’s Paxton’s legal team that was to blame for the delay.
There was also news of a shake-up with just weeks to go before the trial is scheduled to start. One of the prosecutors for the state, Kent Shaffer, is leaving the case.
Prosecutor Brian Wice said it was because of a fundamental disagreement over how to proceed with the case, with Shaffer suggesting a pre-trial intervention to settle the case that would have essentially avoided a trial, avoided an admission of guilt by Paxton and left him to follow certain restrictions for a while.
Wice disagreed, and the two agreed for Shaffer to leave and bring on Jed Silverman to the state’s legal team to prosecute Paxton.
Even though he’s joining at a late stage, he’s confident in moving ahead with the trial as is Paxton’s team.
“Lot of times when you do what I do, I’m called in on the 11th hour to try cases,” Silverman said. “And history has proven that I’m successful at it. And in my opinion, this is a case that's extremely important to the jurisprudence, not only of the State of Texas but of the United States.”
“He's ready for trial, he's excited that we'll get to trial,” Dan Cogdell, Paxton’s defense attorney, said. “I mean, this thing has been pending for eight years. They want a dance. Put on your shoes. It's time to go. Let's dance.”
Judge Andrea Beall also set another pretrial date for March 20. Then the trial is scheduled to start on April 15.