The shadowy trip — facilitated by the Attorney General Alliance (AGA) and Conference of Western Attorneys General (CWAG) — was a 10-day excursion taking place between Oct. 30, 2019, and Nov. 8, 2019, and included stops in the Chinese cities of Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Macau, according to an itinerary of the trip reviewed by Fox News Digital.

"My first thought was this is a terrible decision to have made," said one individual with knowledge of the trip, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to avoid retribution. "Under no set of circumstances as a U.S. law enforcement official should you willingly go to China."

Paxton — accompanied on the trip by his wife Angela, a Texas state senator — was not required to report the trip and ultimately attended against wishes from staffers who raised potential government influence and surveillance concerns, officials familiar with the matter said.