Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wants the FBI to help other law enforcement agencies find and potentially arrest Texas House Democrats. The move comes after the lawmakers left the state to prevent a vote on Republicans’ attempt to redistrict.
Call to the FBI
Cornyn sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, asking for the aid and calling on the bureau to assist Texas state law enforcement.
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“Since these state legislators are currently outside of Texas, the Texas Department of Public Safety may need support to arrest the fleeing lawmakers,” the letter reads.
Cornyn said some of the lawmakers have fled to New York and Illinois. He believes the FBI has the capability to bring them back to Texas.
“The FBI has tools to aid state law enforcement when parties cross state lines, including to avoid testifying or fleeing a scene of a crime,” the letter reads.
Cornyn also wrote he’s concerned the lawmakers broke the law, saying they “may be guilty of bribery or other public corruption offenses.”
Straight Arrow News spoke with Michael G. Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina with a focus on constitutional law.
“The request strikes me as outrageous,” Gerhardt said. “It is not a federal crime for the Democratic legislators to do what they did. Cornyn is simply seeking partisan retribution, which is way outside the scope of either his or the FBI’s authority.”
Patel has not yet publicly commented on the letter.
Redistricting battle
Cornyn does not specifically mention the redistricting efforts in the letter to Patel. The only legislation brought up is the recent flooding in the state.
“These legislators have committed potential criminal acts in their rush to avoid their constitutional responsibilities and must be fully investigated and held accountable,” the letter reads.
Despite Cornyn’s claims, Gerhardt stresses that legislators have not broken any laws.
“This is another example of a Republican senator ignorant or disdainful of the rule of law. There is no basis for federal intervention at all,” Gerhardt said.
The dust-up in the Lone Star State began with President Donald Trump asking Texas lawmakers to redistrict to get five more GOP seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. It has led to a potential redistricting battle with Democratic states like California and New York.
Pushback on Dem. lawmakers
Along with Cornyn’s letter, Democratic lawmakers have seen pushback from Texas’ state-level Republicans.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot called for their arrest and floated the idea of removing and replacing them all.
Straight Arrow News spoke with State Rep. Venton Jones, D-Dallas, about the move.
“We will be here for at least the next two weeks,” Jones said. “And what we hope is that in future special sessions, we can begin to focus on the issues that are important to Texans right now –– addressing flood relief, making sure that we make ends meet, literally the cost of groceries and investing in our public schools. There are so many things that we could be addressing right now that have real bipartisan solutions in place versus having the focus of this special session, which has only been, to date, on redistricting.”
