Good morning,

Yesterday we asked about federal plans to resettle unvetted refugees from Afghanistan in Texas. Find the responses at the end of today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Wednesday, August 25, 2021
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UPFRONT: Yesterday’s Texas Minute misspelled the name of people from Afghanistan; they are known as Afghans. The “Afghani” is the country’s currency. I apologize for the confusion!

No One Will Call It A Coup, But…

• Texas’ political world was rocked a year ago when seven top employees of the Office of the Attorney General filed a criminal complaint. They alleged Paxton had received a bribe to aid a campaign donor by interfering in an investigation. Yet an internal investigation by the Office of the Attorney General finds that not only did Paxton not break any laws, but several of those making the accusation apparently did.
   
• The background is long, and a bit complicated. This in-depth explainer written in October 2020 will help.
   
• The investigation finds Paxton took actions that were “proper pursuant to his legal obligations.” 
   
• What emerges from the report issued yesterday is a picture of an agency’s senior staff who had decided to take out their boss – a statewide elected official – and were unconcerned with whatever facts needed to be ignored or concocted to make it happen.
   
• It appears these staffers, in their effort to oust Paxton, had deleted, destroyed, or hid evidence. At least two appear to have abused the trust of other investigators and illegally transmitted secret grand jury records.
   
• The motivations for all this activity are unclear, though perhaps is hinted in a single paragraph late in the report’s narrative. The seven disgruntled senior staffers “began visits with clients of the AG, including State government staff and elected officials, to attempt to cause political damage to the AG and his attorney-client relationship with those individuals.”
   
• What that means is that they were meeting with members of the Texas Senate, according to a source close to the investigation. “It was an attempted coup, but no one will call it that,” said the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation or the report.
     
• This source explains the meetings took place so these staffers could determine what interest members of the Texas Senate had in seeing Paxton removed as the attorney general – and who they would be willing to confirm if a situation presented itself. A key question from them, according to the source, was if they would be able to keep their jobs. Several, no doubt, hoped for promotions in a new administration.
   
• In the end, none of them kept their jobs. And several might find themselves with criminal investigations into their own behavior.

Will Legislators End Mask Mandates?

• As school districts across the state continue defying Gov. Greg Abbott’s July executive order attempting to prohibit the mandates, Texans across the state are growing confused, with an ever-changing legal landscape as challenges to the order make their way through the courts. Jeramy Kitchen reports on legislative efforts to address school mask mandates in the final days of the special session.
     
• Three measures have been sent to the House Committee on Public Education. The first two, by Republican State Reps. Jeff Cason (Bedford) and Jeff Leach (Allen), would explicitly prohibit mask mandates in public schools. Meanwhile, Democrat Harold Dutton (Houston) authored legislation that would explicitly allow school boards to mandate the wearing of masks on children 12 years of age and younger in public schools.
     
• It is worth noting that Rep. Dutton is the chairman of the House Committee on Public Education and one of the quorum-busting Democrats.
   
• I’m sure Dutton will be more than happy to help his GOP colleagues pass legislation diametrically opposed to his own Democrat agenda… 

Still No Penalties For House Democrats

• Despite pressure from Republican Party officials and grassroots activists, the Texas House GOP majority has still refused to take any action against the Democrats who stalled out the legislative process for 37 days this summer. 
   
• Before the House on Monday inexplicably took a recess until Thursday, Republican State Reps. Bryan Slaton (Royse City) and Tony Tinderholt (Arlington) asked House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) numerous questions about the process for ensuring a quorum break does not happen again.
   
• Phelan didn’t really answer any of them. Check out the story and video clips.

More Questions Raised In West Arrest

• Over the weekend the wife of Republican gubernatorial candidate Allen West was arrested by the Dallas Police Department for “driving under the influence.” Yet dashboard and body camera footage show Angela West unimpaired in a poorly administered field sobriety test. 
      
• A breathalyzer test came back “inconclusive,” but dining receipts and witnesses say she had not had anything to drink but “lemonade and water.”
      
• Mrs. West was arrested with her infant grandson in the car. The child was left in the custody of DPD officers while the West’s daughter and son-in-law were contacted. (Lt. Col. West was in Waco for a dinner that evening.)
      
• Now, reports Robert Montoya, Allen West has released the results of a urine test conducted by a Metroplex-based lab. Taken less then 72 hours from the incident, there is no evidence of alcohol or other drugs in her system.
     
• For his part, West maintains his wife’s “civil rights were violated.”

Another Special Election

• Early voting started this week in a special election to fill the open Texas House District 10 seat, with competition tightening between the two Republicans seen as top contenders. Erin Anderson has the details.
   
• The seat became open when Jake Ellzey (R-Waxahachie) resigned it after winning a special election to replace the late Ron Wright in Congress. Though there are eight candidates in the HD 10 race, Republicans Brian Harrison and John Wray appear to have the most traction in the expedited election. Wray previously served in the Texas House. Harrison was chief of staff to the Secretary for Health and Human Services in the Trump Administration.
     
• Early voting runs through August 27 and Election Day is August 31.

Y’All Answered

In yesterday’s One Click Survey we asked if unvetted refugees from Afghanistan should be resettled in the Lone State State, as the Biden Administration is reportedly doing. Of readers participating in the survey, 96.4 percent are opposed to the resettlement leaving 3.6 percent supporting it.

Here’s a sample of the replies we received:

• “NO unvetted foreigners or refugees of ANY nationality or ethnicity should be resettled ANYWHERE in the US. That said, I am not opposed to welcoming those who have been properly vetted as US employees (interpreters for example) or those who are genuinely in danger if returned or sent elsewhere.” – Olli Coker
       
• “It's hard to make a case against settling unvetted Afghans in Texas when we are settling hordes of unvetted from every nation coming across our southern border.” – Markay Rister
     
• “Thousands of Texans who were deployed to Afghanistan owe a lot to the Afghans who helped us  in a country that is in a perpetual state of war.  We owe them something besides watching them get beheaded on TV.” – Len Waska
     
• “Texas doesn’t need any more immigrants right now, we have thousands coming through open borders!  Maybe send them all to Washington?” – Donna de Socarraz
         
• “We have the friendliest governor in the whole of the USA! First he allows an unprecedented number of illegal aliens across the border and now he is allowing plane loads of Afghan refugees to be delivered to our state. Does he think he is importing voters? Because he is losing them by the thousands with his forfeiture of leadership.” – Ellen Theilen
      
• “I believe we should help those that aided us during this war. But I don’t trust the Biden Administration not to dump the worst of the worst in our state. So if they cannot be vouched for don’t bring them to our country. ” – Michael Rogers
      
• “Send all the illegals and the refugees to Washington, DC or Delaware.  Biden and the Feds are the source of the problem let them deal with it.” – Rex Reeve
      
• “Texas hosting the people of Afghanistan who are at risk in their own country is a noble cause but indiscriminately bringing over people, especially from an area with known terrorist activity, is a recipe for disaster! Biden has already caused a huge security risk at our southern border. Is he attempting to create more problems in Texas?” – Aaron Longhorn
      
• “I truly believe this is a concerted effort by Washington DC liberals to allow open southern border illegal immigrants and Afghan refugees to destroy Texas as a Conservative stronghold in the Republic.  DC’s agenda is crystal clear by their actions!” – Franchee Whitaker

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