Paxton allegedly left his home in a truck driven by his wife, state Senator Angela Paxton, in an attempt to avoid being served court documents, The Texas Tribune, citing an affidavit filed in federal court, reported Monday.
The contents of the affidavit received media coverage and attention on social media Tuesday, but Paxton said in a statement that the “made-up controversy around serving me a subpoena is nothing more than a shameless stunt from my political opponents.”
The court documents are related to a lawsuit from non-profit groups seeking to fund out-of-state abortions for residents of Texas. On Tuesday, a Judge Robert Pitman granted a request filed by Paxton to quash and seal the subpoena to appear at a hearing for the lawsuit, CNN reported, citing a motion it said it obtained.
In his statement, Paxton wrote that he perceived the process server, identified in the affidavit as Ernesto Martin Herrera, as a threat “because he was neither honest nor upfront about his intentions.” He said that the server came onto his property, “yelled unintelligibly” and “charged” toward him.
“In light of the constant threats against me, for which dangerous individuals are currently incarcerated, I take a number of common sense precautions for me and my family’s safety when I’m at home,” Paxton wrote.
He added that many Texans also take precautions to safeguard themselves, as well as “exercise their Second Amendment rights to protect themselves and their families.”
“Given that this suspicious and erratic man charged me on my private property, he is lucky that this situation did not escalate further or necessitate force,” Paxton said.
The affidavit signed by Herrera said that he arrived at Paxton’s home Monday morning and knocked on the door. Inside, he could see a man he recognized to be the Texas attorney general.
His wife answered the door and Herrera informed her that he had to deliver legal documents to Paxton, but she said that he was on the phone and in a hurry to leave, according to the affidavit. Herrera returned to his car to wait and eventually saw Paxton exiting the garage.
“As soon as he saw me and heard me call his name out, he turned around and RAN back inside the house through the same door in the garage,” Herrera wrote.
His wife then came out and got into the driver’s seat of a truck on his property and started the vehicle, the affidavit said.
“A few minutes later, I saw Mr. Paxton [run] from the door inside the garage towards the rear door behind the driver side,” it continued. “I approached the truck, and loudly called him by his name and stated that I had court documents for him. Mr. Paxton ignored me and kept heading for the truck.
“After determining that Mr. Paxton was not going to take the Subpoenas from my hand, I stated that I was serving him with legal documents and was leaving them on the ground where he could get them.”
Paxton got into the truck without taking the documents from the ground and was driven away from his home, it added.
Newsweek reached out to Special Delivery, a Texas-based delivery and legal services company for which an email was listed under Herrera’s name on the affidavit, for comment.
