Lawyer Common Ken Paxton has referred to as for performing Comptroller Kelly Hancock to be faraway from workplace, in a fiery social media tirade responding to a letter Hancock despatched accusing Paxton of falling brief in his efforts to cease the unfold of Muslim-affiliated teams in Texas.
Paxton referred to as Hancock an “incompetent loser” and “embarrassment” to the place of the state’s chief monetary officer in a social media put up late Tuesday. He referred to as for Gov. Greg Abbott to take away Hancock from workplace and exchange him with the GOP nominee for comptroller, Don Huffines. Abbott didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Hancock, a former state senator, was appointed by Abbott in June, after Glenn Hegar left to change into chancellor of the Texas A&M system.
Paxton’s beef with Hancock goes again years — Hancock was considered one of two Republican state senators to vote to question Paxton on a number of the prices levied by the Home in 2023.
“He didn’t take me down throughout impeachment, and his profession is over,” Paxton posted on social media Wednesday evening. “It’s time for him to be fired.”
This latest dustup began after Hancock despatched a letter, obtained by Texas Bullpen, to Paxton’s workplace, criticizing its authorized technique in a case centering on whether or not Islamic colleges can obtain funds by means of the state’s new faculty voucher program.
Hancock, who oversees the voucher program, has pushed to exclude colleges with ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, which Abbott has declared a terrorist group. CAIR has sued, rejecting any ties to terrorist organizations and saying the label is defamatory and false.
Paxton launched a non-binding authorized opinion in January saying Hancock has the authority to dam sure colleges from taking part in this system if they’re “illegally tied to terrorists or international adversaries.”
4 Muslim mother and father and three Islamic non-public faculty suppliers sued over the exclusion, noting that tons of of non-Islamic colleges had been accepted with out challenge. A federal decide sided with them in an preliminary ruling, ordering the state to increase the voucher software deadline and take into account the faculties’ request to affix this system.
Hancock stated within the letter that Paxton’s workplace had not made clear to the decide that there have been connections between one of many colleges, Houston Quran Academy, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
“The court docket can not shield in opposition to threats it doesn’t know exist,” Hancock wrote.
Houston Quran Academy didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Within the letter, Hancock additionally broadly criticized Paxton for not utilizing all of the instruments at his disposal to go after teams he says are affiliated with Muslim terrorist teams. He referred to as for Paxton to sue Houston Quran Academy to revoke their company constitution, and stated Paxton’s workplace had not but taken steps to implement a brand new state legislation stopping “international adversaries” from shopping for land in Texas.
“Texas can’t be asleep on the wheel as radical Islam spreads,” Hancock wrote.
Hancock’s workplace declined to remark.
That is the second time in every week {that a} fellow Republican has questioned Paxton’s authorized technique in high-profile litigation. In a latest authorized submitting, Abbott famous to the Texas Supreme Courtroom that Paxton had rushed a lawsuit in opposition to a Harris County program providing authorized assist for undocumented immigrants.
“This emergency — whether or not synthetic or honest — predictably compressed evaluate earlier than the Fifteenth Courtroom,” Abbott’s legal professionals wrote. “Any shortcomings within the decrease court docket’s resolution right here can simply be attributed to the challenges posed by expedited evaluate.”
This text first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
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