Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton (R) traveled to Utah final week in the course of the winter storms that claimed dozens of lives and knocked out energy to thousands and thousands of residents, native media retailers reported on Monday.
Paxton’s spokesperson, Ian Prior, stated the lawyer common flew to Utah together with his spouse, state Sen. Angela Paxton, as a part of a “beforehand deliberate journey.”
“Whereas there, AG Paxton had a variety of conferences with the Utah Lawyer Basic over the course of a number of days,” Prior stated.
Prior additionally famous that the journey centered partly on an antitrust lawsuit towards Google.
“I can’t additional share extra particulars or the particular causes on the necessity for the assembly regarding Google because it includes an ongoing investigation,” he stated.
The Dallas Morning Information was the primary to report particulars of Paxton’s journey. It’s unclear why the Paxtons didn’t postpone the conferences or conduct them just about ― or if that they had returned to Texas.
Prior advised CNN that Paxton didn’t go away Texas “till after energy had returned to a lot of the state, together with his own residence.”
Paxton has pledged to research the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates a lot of the state’s electrical grid. Not like the remainder of the continental United States, Texas has its personal energy community which is essentially unregulated, and a sequence of predictable faults led to the dramatic rolling blackouts that impacted a big portion of the state.
Paxton is the newest Texas official to be questioned over his response to the lethal winter storm. Sen. Ted Cruz (R) drew fierce criticism after he was noticed on the airport en path to Cancun final week whereas thousands and thousands of Texans struggled with out energy or warmth amid sub-freezing temperatures.
Cruz juggled between excuses, at occasions blaming his daughters and obfuscating his journey dates, earlier than apologizing and saying the journey was a “mistake.”
“In hindsight, I wouldn’t have executed it,” Cruz stated. “I began having second ideas nearly the second I sat down on the airplane as a result of on the one hand, all of us who’re mother and father have a duty to care for our youngsters, care for our household. That’s one thing Texans have been doing throughout the state.”
The Houston Chronicle reported that one other lawmaker, state Rep. Gary Gates (R), additionally left Texas and flew to Florida on a non-public jet following the storm.
Calling all HuffPost superfans!
Join membership to change into a founding member and assist form HuffPost’s subsequent chapter
