Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who ran out of his house and jumped into a truck driven by his wife to avoid being served a subpoena to testify Tuesday, sent off a tweet saying the process server is “lucky this situation did not escalate further or necessitate force.”
According to an affidavit filed in federal court, Paxton ran away from process server Ernesto Martin Herrera, who was trying to serve him with a subpoena to appear and testify at a federal court hearing Tuesday in a suit from nonprofits who want to block potential criminal charges for those who help women obtain abortions out of state.
The filing states that “Herrera engaged in a back-and forth with Paxton as he was attempting to deliver the federal court subpoena and ultimately had to leave the document on the ground after the Republican and his wife got into a truck and drove off.
Paxton, who is facing a variety of legal troubles as he seeks to win a third term in November, said he avoided the server out of safety concerns and said the news media should be ashamed for reporting on what happened.
“It’s clear that the media wants to drum up another controversy involving my work as Attorney General, so they’re attacking me for having the audacity to avoid a stranger lingering outside my home and showing concern about the safety and well-being of my family,” Paxton wrote in a tweet.
The attorney general added that Herrera is “lucky this situation did not escalate further or necessitate force.”
It’s unclear if he was threatening violence against the process sever given the fact that he chose to run.
Read Paxton’s tweet below.
Attorney General Paxton released the following statement after the the dismissal of the subpoena against him in Federal Court: pic.twitter.com/MX4eDXvQi7
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) September 27, 2022
