American lawyer and politician who has served as the Attorney General of Texas since January 2015. Paxton is a Tea Party conservative. He previously served as Texas State Senator for the 8th district and the Texas State Representative for the 70th district. Paxton has been under indictment since 2015 on securities fraud charges relating to activities prior to taking office; he has pleaded not guilty. In October 2020, several high-level assistants in Paxton's office accused him of "bribery, abuse of office and other crimes"