Attorney General-Elect Nathan Johnson Says Paxton Lawsuits Done for 'Political Stuntery' Will Be Terminated

AUSTIN — When Nathan Johnson takes over the Texas attorney general's office in January, the docket he inherits from Ken Paxton goes under review first — and some of it, he says, will not survive. Johnson vowed to abandon pending lawsuits from Paxton's tenure that he determines were brought for political gain rather than to protect Texans, Bloomberg Law reported from an interview with him on Wednesday.

"Those done for political stuntery are going to be terminated," Johnson told Bloomberg Law. He voiced skepticism specifically about the cases targeting Johnson & Johnson, BlackRock and State Street, and his review will dig into how those cases were staffed: outside lawyers Paxton hired on contingency, positioned to bill the state as much as $3,780 an hour, Bloomberg Law reported.

Johnson, 58, a Democratic state senator from Dallas, defeated Republican Mayes Middleton on Nov. 3 and will be the first Democrat to hold the office since 1994, Reuters reported. His stated standard echoes what he told Reuters days after the election about the whole of Paxton's litigation file: "Everything will be examined." The office he takes over is one of the largest law offices in American state government — more than 4,000 people, including more than 750 attorneys, Bloomberg Law reported.

What ends and what continues will be decided case by case once Johnson holds the office in January; Wednesday's interview named the test he will apply and the first files he doubts, and no case was terminated this week. For an office that spent years as the filing engine of national conservative litigation, the review itself is the change: the lawsuits now have to justify themselves to the lawyer who inherited them.