The Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, James Talarico, is seeking to unseal depositions involving his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton, as part of an ongoing effort to keep the focus on Paxton's history of scandals. This was reported by infohub.kz.
The depositions stem from a civil case in which Unity Resources, a mineral assets company, was accused of fraud. Paxton was connected to Unity but was not a defendant, and the case was settled. Talarico's campaign confirmed it would ask a court on Wednesday to release the documents.
The Democratic state representative is counting on voters recoiling from past accusations against Paxton, but similar tactics have failed in previous campaigns. In addition to seeking the depositions, Talarico recently resurfaced video of Paxton pocketing an expensive pen at a courthouse security checkpoint. He has also frequently reminded voters that Paxton was impeached (though later acquitted) and faced criminal charges for securities fraud, which ended with an agreement with prosecutors involving restitution payments but no admission of guilt.
Paxton has repeatedly denied all allegations against him, calling them politically motivated smears. This approach has worked for him before, including when he defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in this year's Republican primary. The Wall Street Journal previously reported the contents of one deposition, including that Paxton had possibly violated attorney-client privilege, though that was disputed by those involved. The Journal also reported that Paxton said he could not recall the answer to a question about 90 times during the deposition.
In a draft of the court filing, lawyers for Talarico's campaign argued that there is "no basis under Texas law or procedure to withhold them from the public. Keeping them secret violates Texas's constitutional guarantee that judicial proceedings be free and open to public scrutiny."