The Failed Texas Lawsuit Challenging 2020 Election Results

Former President Donald Trump and his allies made numerous dubious legal challenges to the 2020 election results after his loss. One of those challenges came from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who sued four key battleground states that went for President Joe Biden — Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — in a bid to stop their electoral college votes from being counted, contending without evidence that pandemic-related changes to election procedures amounted to widespread fraud. 

The suit was thrown out by the Supreme Court within days, but not before it drew support from at least 125 Republican members of the House of Representatives, Trump himself, and the attorneys general of 17 other states. 

American Oversight filed open records requests in Texas and several other states that joined the suit to provide more information about this authoritarian effort to thwart democracy. 

In Texas, we requested records of email communications and text messages between Paxton or his top aides and Texas senators or other state attorneys general. American Oversight also requested communications or meetings Paxton’s office had with top Department of Justice officials in the weeks leading up to the lawsuit. 

We are also seeking records of communications among the state attorneys general who supported the suit, including those in Florida, Missouri, West Virginia, and Oklahoma, as well as their communications with Justice Department leadership.