Talarico Accuses Paxton Over 1-Month Child Abuse Plea Deal in Texas Senate Race
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 18
Talarico Accuses Paxton Over 1-Month Child Abuse Plea Deal in Texas Senate Race
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 18
Summary
James Talarico made a Waco child sex abuse case a central attack line in his Democratic Senate campaign, accusing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of arranging a plea deal that let lawyer Adam Hoffman serve less than a month in jail.
At a Thursday courthouse event in Waco, Talarico demanded Paxton release internal files on the case and said the attorney general "protected a predator" instead of a child.
The deal had already drawn scrutiny after the local district attorney, who recused himself, said the punishment appeared more lenient than usual and activists protested in Waco this spring.
That controversy also surfaced in Paxton's Republican primary, when Senator John Cornyn suggested Paxton had done Hoffman a favor, giving Democrats a ready-made line of attack for the general election.