WASHINGTON — The FBI is now assisting Texas authorities with finding “rogue” Democrats who fled the state to stall a redistricting effort, according to a bureau spokesperson.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) had requested FBI involvement after the 57 legislators decamped to blue states — including Illinois, Massachusetts and New York — in the middle of a special session convened to redraw congressional maps.
“I am proud to announce that Director Kash Patel has approved my request for the FBI to assist state and local law enforcement in locating runaway Texas House Democrats,” Cornyn said in a statement after asking the feds to help round up the “potential lawbreakers.”
“I thank President Trump and Director Patel for supporting and swiftly acting on my call for the federal government to hold these supposed lawmakers accountable for fleeing Texas. We cannot allow these rogue legislators to avoid their constitutional responsibilities.”
The Texas Dems’ absence prevented the state legislature from establishing a quorum necessary to consider the redistricting and other bills, with several decrying the GOP’s effort as an attempt to secure more seats in next year’s midterms.
“I will liken this to the Holocaust,” Texas Democratic state Rep. Jolanda Jones said Tuesday, before issuing an apology for the unhinged comparison between partisan politicking and the slaughter of more than 6 million Jews by the Nazis.
Republican Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows set a Friday deadline for the runaway Democrats to reappear before “judicial orders” are sought declaring that they have “vacated their office.”
President Trump had indicated Tuesday that the FBI “may have to” get involved to force the runaway legislators back to Austin.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state authorities Monday to “arrest” the “delinquent Texas House Democrats” and bring them back for the special legislative session in the state’s capital.
“As we’re talking right now, Texas Department of Public Safety officers are on the streets looking for those Democrat House members to arrest them and to take them to the Texas capitol and hold them there until a quorum is reached,” Abbott told Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show” on Tuesday.
Cornyn’s Tuesday letter to Patel also expressed concerns “that legislators who solicited or accepted funds to aid in their efforts to avoid their legislative duties may be guilty of bribery or other public corruption offenses.”
On Wednesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a probe into any “unlawful activity” by former Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s political group that could have aided state Dems.
O’Rourke’s Powered by People PAC, founded in 2019 during his failed Democratic presidential bid, may have run afoul of state bribery laws by “bankrolling” the trip by Texas House Democrats who flew to deep-blue Illinois to meet with Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker.
“Any Democrat coward breaking the law by taking a Beto Bribe will be held accountable,” Paxton said in a statement. “Texas cannot be bought. I look forward to thoroughly reviewing all of the documents and communications obtained throughout this investigation.”
Abbott indicated on “The Will Cain Show” Tuesday that state Democrats who took financial assistance for their trip could be removed from office.
Pritzker got a dose of his own medicine later Tuesday during an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” when the lame-duck late night host confronted the Illinois governor with a map of his state’s own gerrymandered House districts.
“Take a look at this. Look at [District] 17 here. It does that, then it comes up here and it sneaks around there and goes all the way up here, and then goes right over there like that. And look at this one, kind of goes whoop up there,” Colbert noted, brandishing a map of Illinois’ congressional boundaries.
One looked like “the stinger on a scorpion,” the recently canceled CBS host noted.
“As I’ve said, everything’s on the table,” Pritzker told Colbert, suggesting Illinois Democrats could convene their own special session to mark up new district lines.
Redistricting usually occurs through state legislatures or independent commissions every 10 years after a census is released.
In recent years, Texas, Pennsylvania and North Carolina have convened special sessions before the decennial population count to make new boundaries, which drew legal challenges.
