Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ordered to testify in abortion lawsuit after evading subpoena!

A federal judge ordered the Texas attorney general Ken Paxton To testify in an abortion rights lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Robert Pittman had previously set aside the subpoena, which Paxton had fled his home to avoid receiving.

The video above is from a previous story.

At a hearing last week, attorneys representing abortion rights nonprofits asked Bateman to reconsider and asked Paxton to testify. Bateman accepted their proposal on Tuesday.

These nonprofits are called abortion funds, The lawsuit was filed in August, to obtain guarantees that they will not face criminal or civil penalties for helping Texans pay for out-of-state abortions. They have argued that Paxton’s statements on social media and in the press make clear that the state’s top attorney believes abortion money can and should be sued for its work at state borders.

Accordingly, lawyers for abortion funds attempted to subpoena Paxton to get him to testify at last week’s hearing. Emails appear That Paxton’s office was aware that they intended to serve him with a subpoena before the operation’s servant appeared at his home on September 26.

When the process server tried to serve the subpoena, however, Paxton ran away from home In a truck driven by his wife, the state senator. Angela PaxtonAccording to the affidavit. Paxton said in a statement that the “strange man” remaining around his home made him fear for his safety.

See related story: Texas AJ wife Ken Paxton drove him away to avoid receiving a subpoena, records say

The next morning, Bateman rescinded the subpoena. But in Tuesday’s order, he said he did so “on the assumption that Paxton’s attorney had made explicit allegations in court… only to find out later that Paxton had failed to disclose the plaintiffs’ repeated emails in an effort to inquire whether Paxton could testify.” …”

Bateman also sided with the abortion funds’ argument that Paxton had unique, first-hand knowledge that required him to testify.

“The court would not agree to a scheme in which Paxton repeatedly describes his threats of prosecution as real for deterrence purposes and hypothetical for judicial review,” Bateman wrote.

He also rejected the argument that asking Paxton to testify would be too much for his request of the state’s chief attorney.

“It is difficult to reconcile the idea that Paxton has time to give interviews that threaten prosecution, but that he will be undue burdened by explaining what he means to the parties affected by his statements,” Bateman wrote. “The burden faced by the plaintiffs – the effective suspension of many essential operations – exceeds the burden of testimony faced by Paxton.”

Pittman gave attorneys on both sides a week to determine how and when Paxton would testify.

The Texas Attorney General’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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