Subject: The Brief: Paxton Tries To Calm Tempest Over Tea Party IRS Remark
From: The Texas Tribune <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2016 11:05:27 +0000
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The Texas Tribune
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** The Brief: Paxton Tries To Calm Tempest Over Tea Party IRS Remark (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=2d31ebbf5e&e=df70708b10)
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by John Reynolds | April 26, 2016
http://texastribune.us3.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=c48c74e011&e=df70708b10

** The Big Conversation
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Remarks made by Attorney General Ken Paxton at a Tea Party event over the weekend caused some confusion afterward as to whether he admitted to being audited by the IRS.

A campaign spokesman for Paxton told the Tribune's Jonathan Silver on Monday evening that wasn't so. "It was probably in-artful wording," spokesman Matt Welch said about Paxton's reference to the IRS (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=b6b99a6c32&e=df70708b10) . "He was trying to demonstrate the absurdity of the attacks against him."

In the weekend speech, Paxton told the audience, "This person's been no trouble for 35 years and then, suddenly, they have all this trouble. Well that’s, in essence, what’s happened to me. I have no speeding ticket in my life. Never been audited by the IRS. Never been investigated by — never, no bar grievances with the state bar. I get sworn into office and everything I just mentioned happened.”

The Lone Star Project, a Democratic political action committee, later circulated a recording of Paxton's comments. Welch told the Tribune afterward (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=b118bf0f30&e=df70708b10) , “The Democrats saw Ken Paxton’s speech and got upset. I’d be mad too if I were them because he’s doing an outstanding job as Attorney General. For the record, Ken Paxton has never been audited by the IRS and has never had his bank accounts frozen."

Matt Angle, Lone Star Project's founder and director, countered that Paxton's comments on the IRS (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=eed9be34cb&e=df70708b10) were "in exact context." The organization has called for Paxton's resignation. "He either lied to his supporters at that event to get sympathy, or he's lying to reporters now," Angle said.

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