Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to look in Houston courtroom listening to for his securities fraud trial

HOUSTON (AP) — Embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, awaiting the beginning of a separate impeachment trial, is about to look in a Houston courtroom Thursday to debate his almost decade-long delayed trial on securities fraud fees.

It’s unclear if any resolution shall be made throughout the courtroom listening to on when Paxton may lastly go to trial on felony fees of defrauding traders in a tech startup. He was indicted in 2015.

The case is again in a Houston courtroom after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a choice final month by a choose who initially oversaw the case to maneuver the proceedings out of Paxton’s hometown close to Dallas. Paxton has spent years combating to maintain the trial in Collin County, the place he maintains vast help amongst GOP activists and his spouse, Angela Paxton, is a state senator.

Paxton was scheduled to look in courtroom throughout the listening to, mentioned Philip Hilder, one in all Paxton’s attorneys. Paxton has not often appeared in courtroom for hearings within the securities fraud case.

Hilder declined to touch upon what may be mentioned throughout the standing convention listening to however mentioned he anticipated it to be “relatively short.”

Brian Wice, a particular prosecutor who was appointed to the securities fraud case after Paxton was indicted, declined to remark.

The listening to shall be earlier than state District Judge Andrea Beall, a Democrat.

The indictments accuse Paxton of defrauding traders in a Dallas-area tech startup by not disclosing he was being paid by the corporate, referred to as Servergy, to recruit them. The indictments have been handed up simply months after Paxton was sworn in as Texas’ high legislation enforcement officer.

A large number of causes have delayed the trial, together with authorized debate over whether or not the case must be tried within the Dallas space or Houston, modifications during which choose would deal with the case and a protracted battle over how a lot the particular prosecutors ought to receives a commission.

If convicted of the securities fraud fees, Paxton faces as much as 99 years in jail.

Thursday’s listening to comes as Paxton faces elimination from workplace following his historic impeachment by the state House in May. A trial within the Texas Senate is about to start Sept. 5.