Paxton has filed a motion for contempt in court against O’Rourke, alleging that he violated a Tarrant County, Texas, judge’s order and therefore is subject to a fine of up to $500 and jail time of up to six months behind bars.
“Beto told me ‘to come and take,’ so I did and beat him in court. Now, he still thinks he’s above the law, so I’m working to put him behind bars,” Paxton said in a Tuesday morning statement provided to Breitbart News exclusively ahead of its public release. “Robert Francis flagrantly and knowingly violated the court order I secured that prevents him from raising funds and distributing any more Beto Bribes. He’s about to find out that running your mouth and ignoring the rule of law has consequences in Texas. It’s time to lock him up.”
O’Rourke, a former U.S. Congressman, ran for the U.S. Senate in 2018 and lost in the general election to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Later, in 2020, he ran for president in a crowded Democrat field but lost in the primary to then-future and now former President Joe Biden.
He then in 2022 ran for governor in Texas and lost to Republican Greg Abbott in the general election.
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O’Rourke, who goes by “Beto” as a nickname, has seized on Texas Republicans’ efforts in the statehouse to redraw congressional districts mid-decade to more fairly represent the people as a way to gin up Democrat base enthusiasm ahead of the midterm elections and has been encouraging the Democrat lawmakers who fled from Austin out of Texas to attempt to delay the process from moving forward. He has sought to fundraise off of their efforts through his organization which is called “Powered by People,” and that’s where this latest development comes in.
Last week, Paxton asked a Texas district court to bar O’Rourke and his group from fundraising for these Democrats and a judge issued a temporary restraining order late last week banning O’Rourke from fundraising on this front. “The Beto Bribe buyouts that were bankrolling the runaway Democrats have been officially stopped,” Paxton said after the judge issued the restraining order banning O’Rourke from doing such fundraising. “People like Robert believe Texas can be bought. Today, I stopped his deceptive financial influence scheme that attempted to deceive donors and subvert our constitutional process. They told me to ‘come and take it,’ so I did.”
While that seemed to stop things, O’Rourke went out less than 24 hours later at an event this weekend and specifically encouraged rally-goers to donate to his organization via text message in order to support the Democrat statehouse fugitives.
“He [Paxton] tried to stop us from holding this rally here today in Fort Worth, he tried to stop us from raising money to support these Democrats in the fight—he lost—and one of the worst things that we could do to Ken Paxton is to right now choose to donate, to have the backs of these fighters,” O’Rourke said at his rally this weekend, before giving out the specific text code and number to which to send it—specifically asking for money supposedly for them.
“He [Paxton] is trying to stop us from raising the resources they [the Democrat statehouse fugitives] need to ultimately prevail and come through and we are not going to let him stop us,” O’Rourke continued. “Are you with me on that?”
Later, after encouraging Democrats in blue states elsewhere nationwide to mid-decade redistrict even before Texas does so as to boost Democrats in those places, O’Rourke said “there are no refs in this game, f*ck the rules, we are going to win whatever it takes.”
The press release from Paxton’s office takes particular note of O’Rourke saying that, explaining that there is in fact a referee in this—the Texas judge who barred him from doing this. “Robert Francis is wrong on both counts,” Paxton’s office’s release states. “There is a referee—the Honorable Megan Fahey—and there are rules—namely, that a person violating a temporary restraining order can be fined up to $500 and jailed for up to six months.”
O’Rourke, of course, has had a criminal past. O’Rourke was arrested for driving drunk in 1998, and later, police officers who were present at the scene of that 1998 arrest said he was trying to flee the scene of the crime—something O’Rourke denies and has been the subject of intense political debate surrounding his personal background. The charges against him were later dismissed as part of a court-approved diversion program that O’Rourke completed.
Breitbart News
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