FBI Locates Texas Democrats Who Fled State Amid Quorum Standoff
The political standoff in Texas is intensifying as GOP U.S. Sen. John Cornyn announced that FBI Director Kash Patel has agreed to help locate House Democrats who fled the state to block a quorum during a special session on congressional redistricting.
Gov. Greg Abbott has blasted the walkout, accusing Democrats of abandoning their sworn duties. The absence of lawmakers prevented the Texas House from conducting business on legislation dealing with election integrity and border security. Abbott has vowed to call special sessions every 30 days until the work is done and has already begun removal proceedings against at least one absent lawmaker, The Hill reported.
The Texas House has issued civil arrest warrants, suspended pay and per diems, and approved budget cuts for the offices of members participating in the walkout, and the state’s Attorney General is investigating a Democratic PAC that may have helped fund the effort. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has joined calls for their return.
“In a representative democracy, we resolve our differences by debating and voting, not by running away,” Cornyn wrote in his letter to the FBI, according to The Hill.
“I request the FBI’s assistance, as federal resources are necessary to locate the out-of-state Texas legislators who are potentially acting in violation of the law. The FBI has tools to aid state law enforcement when parties cross state lines, including to avoid testifying or fleeing a scene of a crime.”
Legal experts warn that involving the FBI could be problematic, given that breaking a quorum is not a crime and this dispute remains a state matter.
“I don’t see why the FBI would be involved in this at all. I mean this is Texas politics and the FBI has no business trying to enforce Texas state law,” said Richard Painter, former associate counsel to President George W. Bush.
The stalemate has brought the legislative agenda to a halt, with neither side showing signs of backing down.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Texas seeking judicial declarations that 13 Texas House seats have been vacated due to continued unlawful absences by Democrat legislators who missed the return deadline set by Speaker Dustin Burrows.
“The rogue Democrat legislators who fled the state have abandoned their duties, leaving their seats vacant,” Paxton said in a press release. “These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process and violated the oath they swore to uphold.
“Their out-of-state rebellion cannot go unchecked, and the business of Texas must go on. I have asked the Texas Supreme Court to declare what has been clear from the beginning: that the runaway members have officially vacated their offices in the Texas House,” he added.
House Democrats remain absent from the state, engaging in what Paxton called politically motivated grandstanding from other locations. He said their conduct represents a “flagrant abandonment of office” and a “betrayal of the voters” who elected them.
The lawsuit focuses on 13 members who made public statements about refusing to return, which Paxton argues confirms the basis for the legal action. Texas law gives the Attorney General authority to represent the state in quo warranto actions and to appear before the Texas Supreme Court in matters involving the state’s interests.
The petition states: “The Texas Constitution, statutes, and rules provide a broad range of tools for members of a legislative minority to be heard. But those tools do not include concerted effort by members of the minority to disrupt the functioning of the Legislature by abdicating their duties, including spurning the constitutional authority of the remaining members to compel their attendance. When members of the Legislature disregard arrest warrants, refuse to perform their duties, and announce that they intend to prevent the Legislature from exercising its constitutional responsibilities, they have, through words and conduct, demonstrated an intent to relinquish and abandon their offices.”
