AG Paxton Denied Access to Texas Prosecutor Criminal Reports

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) can’t require prosecutors in the state’s biggest counties to give him investigative files that he says are needed to show which ones are failing to prosecute certain crimes, a statewide appeals court ruled Tuesday.

Paxton, despite his role as the state’s top lawyer, lacks authority to create a rule authorizing the production of initial and quarterly reports, the Court of Appeals, Fifteenth District said.

“Unlike other agencies, such as the Public Utility Commission or the Railroad Commission, the Legislature did not pass enabling legislation that grants the Office of the Attorney General broad rulemaking ...