NEW: Ken Paxton Launches Investigation Of Soros-Funded Super PAC

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into Texas Majority PAC (TMP), claiming that the group is participating in “potentially unlawful financial coordination and bribery of Democratic legislators who fled Texas to break quorum.”

Paxton — who has vowed to take “aggressive” legal action against Texas Democrats and their financial backers if they do not return to Austin for a vote on redistricting Friday — accused the PAC of being part of an “extremist group” of “far-left organizations attempting to subvert the will of Texas voters.”

Texas Majority PAC was founded by former staffers of perennial Democratic Party candidate Beto O’Rourke, who unsuccessfully ran for governor and U.S. Senate in the Lonestar State. It has also received significant support from billionaire leftist financier George Soros and his network.

“If Texas lawmakers are bowing to the Soros Slush Fund rather than the will of the voters, Texans deserve to know. Getting financial payouts under the table to abandon your legislative duties is bribery,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Texas Majority PAC’s actions seem to indicate that it may be using its Soros-funded resources to break the law and fund the illegal abandonment of public office. If that’s the case as determined by this investigation, there will be a heavy price to pay.”

The announcement comes just under 24 hours after Paxton initiated a nearly identical criminal investigation into Powered by People, a group directly founded by O’Rourke.

A press release from Paxton’s office accuses O’Rourke’s group of “unlawfully” funding the absent Texas lawmakers, citing publicly available reports.

The lawmakers spent several days coordinating with Democrat governors, including J.D. Pritzker of Illinois and Jared Polis of Colorado, to come up with a plan to flee the Lonestar State in order to delay the vote on redistricting.

Many of the absent lawmakers have been staying in hotels funded by left-wing activist groups. This includes Powered by People, according to a report from ABC News. “Powered by People, a voter registration and mobilization group, has been donating to the Texas House Democratic Caucus — not members directly, or for any line-item expense — to help cover upfront costs for the group, such as lodging and transportation,” a spokesperson for O’Rourke’s group told the outlet.

O’Rourke has also kept regular contact with the absent lawmakers as the standoff unfolds. “We will have the backs of these heroic state lawmakers for as long as it takes to stop Trump’s power grab,” O’Rourke told ABC News.

Paxton has issued a Request to Examine to both groups, which demands documents and communications regarding potentially unlawful activity, “including its involvement in the Democrats’ scheme to break quorum.”

The Texas House – which is currently comprised of 88 Republicans and 62 Democrats – cannot vote on the proposed redraw unless two-thirds of its members are present. “This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement.

Under Texas law, the House sergeants-at-arms and the state Department of Safety have legal authority to locate and retrieve absent members within Texas borders. Texas Democrats previously broke quorum in 2003 and 2021. In 2003, they attempted to stop a mid-decade redistricting, while in 2021 they tried to block an election bill with sweeping voting restrictions. Both efforts were unsuccessful.

On Tuesday, Paxton announced that he will be pursuing a court ruling seeking to ensure that all seats held by Democrats who fled would be declared vacant. If successful, state Republicans could schedule special elections in order to fill the seats. The move comes after Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows gave absent lawmakers until Friday, August 8, to return to Texas and present themselves before the House.