DALLAS, Texas — The fallout from the historic and tragic U.S. Capitol breach continued Thursday with one Texas lawmaker placing Attorney General Ken Paxton in the crosshairs of accountability.
Arlington-Grand Prairie State Representative Chris Turner issued a statement asking his colleagues to "thoroughly investigate the role Attorney General Ken Paxton played in yesterday's insurrection" when the 87th Legislative Session begins on Tuesday.
Turner, the Texas House Democratic Caucus's chair, wants consequences ranging from censuring Paxton, limiting his funding, passing legislation reducing his jurisdiction, or even impeaching him.
"I think that, frankly, it's a disgrace that a statewide elected official in Texas traveled to Washington to be part of this effort."
A pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol Wednesday, vandalizing and desecrating symbols of democracy as they entered the building.
Hundreds marched to the area following the 'Save America' rally, which President Donald Trump spoke at.
During his speech, he encouraged supporters to march to the Capitol to "cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women."
He then said, "You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength."
Before Trump took the stage, Paxton spoke to the crowd with his wife Angela, a Republican state Senator for District 8.
Paxton mainly spoke about ousting voter fraud and said that the U.S. Supreme Court should have heard his rejected lawsuit requesting that election results in four battleground states be tossed.
He then spoke about why he was in attendance.
"What we have in President Trump is a fighter, and we believe in what he's accomplished in the last four years," Paxton said.
"We're here today because the message goes on: we will not quit fighting. We're not quitting."
Turner told WFAA that Paxton's words had an impact on what happened later in the day.
"He was part of a rally that was firing up a crowd, telling them that they can't quit fighting these election results that they don't like and then within a few hours that crowd was storming the U.S. Capitol," Turner said.
"It reflects poorly on him, poorly on his office, and unfortunately, it reflects poorly on our entire state."
Paxton didn't respond to WFAA for comment, but he did talk to the Texas Tribune.
Wednesday evening, Paxton retweeted a journalist who claimed that a "busload of Antifa thugs infiltrated peaceful Trump demonstrators."
Thus far, that claim has not been confirmed by law enforcement.
The journalist, Paul Sperry, is a former reporter for the right-wing website WorldNetDaily, and “has a long record of promoting anti-Muslim conspiracy theories," according to research from Georgetown University.
A spokesperson for Paxton told the Tribune that he was merely sharing a tweet.
It's not clear if Turner will be successful in a Republican-controlled Legislature, but he did offer a simple response to that challenge.
"There are plenty of Democrats that are disgusted by what he did and I think there's also a lot of Republicans who have had enough of Ken Paxton."
July 2020 marks five years since Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was indicted on felony securities fraud charges.
He has yet to face a trial.