America’s Trumpiest Attorney General Isn’t Letting a Little Staff Revolt Stop Him
Texas AG Ken Paxton is fighting the Biden administration, past securities charges—and corruption allegations from his own former staff.
Paxton (third from left) in Inez, Texas, in May, at a border-issues town hall.
Photographer: Scott Dalton for Bloomberg Businessweek
(This story was originally published June 22, 2021. On Saturday, the Texas House voted to approve 20 articles of impeachment against Ken Paxton.)
Joe Joplin was smoking a cigarette in his North Texas garage when he had a moment of clarity. At security—that’s where he’d left it. Joplin, a probate lawyer, had spent the day looking for a $1,000 Montblanc pen he’d misplaced at the local courthouse. The Montblanc had been a gift from his wife. “I really wasn’t happy with my wife paying that much for a pen,” he says. And now it was missing.
Joplin rushed back to court, but there was no sign of the pen near the metal detector. He sent an email to the local sheriff, who called him back with good news. “Joe, I found the pen,” the sheriff told him. “It was an elected official.” Joplin was stunned. Had a judge swiped his Montblanc at security? No, it wasn’t a judge, the sheriff replied. It was Ken Paxton.