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Austin, TX, Release: January 10, 2021 — For Immediate Release

For 70 years, the Texas Attorney General’s Office has had the authority to prosecute election fraud across Texas. On December 15, 2021, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest court in Texas for criminal cases, abruptly stripped the Texas Attorney General’s Office of all authority to prosecute election fraud.

With its opinion, the Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed a lower court’s bipartisan opinion and broke with over a century of Texas Supreme Court precedent. In contrast, the Texas Legislature has given the Texas Attorney General’s Office authority to prosecute election fraud and further emphasized that authority just a few months ago in Senate Bill 1, the election integrity bill.

This decision is bad for Texas. Now, Texans will be forced to rely on their local prosecutors to investigate and prosecute election fraud. This most likely means large urban areas and liberal strong holds will have no recourse to pursue election fraud.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office has requested the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rehear the case and asked them to reverse their decision. The Republican Party of Texas supports the motion for a rehearing and hopes the Court reverses this radical decision that undermines years of precedent and the will of the legislature.

You can view the case documents here: Stephens v. State

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