President Donald Trump says that the FBI ’could should’ become involved within the state of affairs.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) requested the FBI to intervene to assist convey again state Home Democrats who left Texas earlier this week to dam the GOP from advancing a congressional redistricting map, prompting President Donald Trump to say that the federal authorities could should become involved.
In a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday, Cornyn mentioned he needs the bureau to “take any applicable steps to assist in Texas state regulation enforcement efforts to find or arrest potential lawbreakers who’ve fled the state” earlier than referring to the Democrats who left.
Dozens of Texas state Home Democrats left for different states, together with Illinois and New York, this week, stopping state Republicans from doing enterprise within the Home on Monday. The remaining representatives voted to situation civil arrest warrants to the Democrats, whereas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered their arrest later that day.
“I request the FBI’s help, as federal sources are essential to find the out-of-state Texas legislators who’re probably performing in violation of the regulation,” Cornyn instructed Patel within the letter, including that the FBI will help Texas state regulation enforcement when “events cross state traces, together with to keep away from testifying or fleeing a scene of a criminal offense.”
Cornyn, who’s up for reelection within the 2026 midterms, then expressed considerations that the Democratic legislators had “solicited or accepted funds to assist of their efforts to keep away from their legislative duties” and “could also be responsible of bribery or different public corruption offenses.
Throughout a information convention on Tuesday, Trump was requested about whether or not the FBI may become involved. “They might should,” Trump mentioned.
On Sunday, Abbott cited an opinion by the state’s lawyer common that Texas district courts could decide whether or not legislators have forfeited their places of work “resulting from abandonment,” saying that might empower him to “swiftly fill vacancies.”
However Texas Lawyer Normal Ken Paxton, who’s operating within the Republican major for Cornyn’s seat, instructed podcast host Benny Johnson on Monday that it could be a “problem” to prosecute the Democrats who left the state, noting that his workplace must go to court docket in “districts that aren’t pleasant to Republicans.”
It could be “completely different” in each state Home district, he mentioned. “We’d should go sue in each legislator’s house district.”
Abbott additionally mentioned any lawmaker who solicited funds to pay the $500-per-day superb that Texas Home guidelines impose on absent legislators may violate bribery legal guidelines. He vowed to attempt extraditing any “potential out-of-state felons.”
The Democrat lawmakers departed their house state after their Republican counterparts proposed a congressional redistricting map, which the Democrats alleged was an unlawful energy seize.
Abbott mentioned Texas must redraw its districts due to constitutional considerations raised by the U.S. Justice Division surrounding 4 Democrat-controlled districts.
A July 7 letter from Assistant U.S. Lawyer Normal Harmeet Dhillon and Deputy Assistant U.S. Lawyer Normal Michael Gates of the Civil Rights Division outlines considerations that the state’s ninth, 18th, twenty ninth, and thirty third congressional districts create unconstitutional “coalition districts” that run afoul of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Modification. Coalition districts mix completely different minority teams to create a possible majority.
Some legislators who left mentioned the threats to take away them from workplace or prosecute them are with out advantage.
“He’s making an attempt to get sound bites and he has no authorized mechanism,” Democratic state Rep. Jolanda Jones instructed reporters at a briefing in New York on Monday.
Including to the political tensions throughout the standoff, California Gov. Gavin Newsom mentioned in a assertion in July that the Democratic-led state legislature would “battle hearth with hearth” and implement an analogous redistricting measure.
Whereas Cornyn didn’t point out the redistricting effort in his letter to Patel, he mentioned that lawmakers nonetheless have to go laws to deal with the lethal flooding that occurred in Texas final month.
“These legislators have dedicated potential legal acts of their rush to keep away from their constitutional duties and should be absolutely investigated and held accountable,” Cornyn wrote within the letter. “I urge you to work with Texas public officers to offer them the help they want.”
Kimberly Hayek and Reuters contributed to this report.
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