2024 Meet the Lawyers

Texas Supreme Court justice implies Democrats will cheat in 2024 election

BY ROBERT DOWNEN THE TEXAS TRIBUNE

Texas Supreme Court Justice John Devine is facing new questions about his impartiality after a clip went viral this week in which he implied that Democrats plan to cheat against presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

“Do you really think the Democrats are going to roll over and let Trump be president again?” Devine asked in a keynote speech at the Texas Tea Party Republican Women’s 2023 Christmas event. “You think they’re just going to go away, all of a sudden find Jesus and [there will] be an honest election? I don’t think so.”

Devine is a for mer anti-abortion activist who claims that church-state separation is a myth and, as a state district judge in Harris County in the 1990s, fought to have a copy of the Ten Commandments posted in his courtroom. In his successful 2012 campaign for the Texas Supreme Court, he claimed to have been arrested 37 times at anti-abortion protests in the 1980s, and has since been a reliable ally of conservative, Christian voters in the state. Devine narrowly survived a GOP primary challenge last month that centered around his ethics, and now faces state district court Judge Christine Vinh Weems, a Democrat, in the

November general election.

Devine acknowledged in his speech that the court could hear more election cases — including those involving Harris County, which Devine accused of trying to “bastardize” election laws when it expanded voting access during the COVID-19 pandemic Many of the county’s protocols were later shot down by the Texas Supreme Court. “I think those kinds of cases are going to be back to us in this cycle,” he said.

Devine then praised Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, who championed numerous laws that were aimed at Harris County in the wake of the 2020

elections. Last year, the Texas Supreme Court declined to block a law, authored by Bettencourt, that removed Harris County’s elections administrator position.

Bettencourt, who attended Devine’s speech, returned the praise: “You’re one of the reasons why we do win fights at the Supreme Court,” he told Devine.

But election disputes weren’t the only hot-button issues on which Devine opined that night.

Throughout his 40-minute speech, he blasted legal challenges to Texas’ abortion laws as a “mockery of God,” and invoked apocalyptic language when discussing Democrats — saying his

Texas Supreme Court Justice John Devine, far le with fellow jurists on the state House floor in Austin in 2013.

after the Tribune reported on another speech he gave last year, in which he again claimed that Democrats had tried to steal elections. In that speech, Devine also blasted his colleagues on the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court as “brainwashed” by “Big Law.”

“At times I feel like they would sacrifice the Republic for the sake of the process,” Devine said in that speech. “My concern is that they all bow down to the altar of process rather than to fidelity to the Constitution. And when I say that, it’s not meant to be malice towards my colleagues. I think it’s how they were trained — how they were brainwashed.”

judgeship gave him a “front-row seat to the end of the world.”

“Our culture is dying before our very eyes,” he said. “The church seems to be weakened and not know what to do. We have a corrupted government. On a federal level, we’re run by a criminal enterprise. … None of you are going to escape this And so I would implore you to get closer to the Lord. I would implore you to prepare. I would implore you to bring other people on board.”

Devine did not respond to a request for comment Friday about the comments or the online criticism of them. The backlash comes barely a month

Devine has recently faced other questions about his ethics. Earlier this year, Bloomberg News reported that he had missed more than half of oral arguments before the court this ter m as he campaigned for reelection.

And in February, the Tribune reported that Devine did not recuse himself in 2022, when the court considered a high-profile sex abuse lawsuit against Southern Baptist leader Paul Pressler and his longtime law partner, Jared Woodfill. Devine, the Tribune found, had worked for Pressler and Woodfill’s law fir m for years — and at the same time that the plaintiff in the lawsuit alleged he was molested by Pressler while also working at the firm.

BOB DAEMMRICH | THE TEXAS TRIBUNE

Public blasts Texas agencies, regulators for poor communication, oversight at wildfire hearings

BY STEPHEN SIMPSON THE TEXAS TRIBUNE

PAMPA — The Texas legislative committee investigating this year’s deadly Panhandle wildfires blasted state agencies and regulators for failing to communicate — and began hinting at possible legal changes it could propose as it wrapped up its work.

Thursday’s hearing marked the end of the Legislature’s three-day marathon of public hearings into the Smokehouse Creek fire and others that ripped through the Panhandle earlier this year, killing two Hundreds of homes and ranches were also damaged or destroyed, and as many as 10,000 cattle were killed.

Among the witnesses this week were landowners, volunteer firefighters, utility companies and state agency officials. The committee, which includes three Republican House members and two local landowners, expects to publish its results on May 1. State Rep. Ken King, a Canadian Republican and chair of the committee, said the Legislature’s work was difficult but necessary.

“You may not like the line of questions or the tone of questions, but we are here for answers,” King told representatives of the state’s regulatory agencies early Thursday. “It’s not a personal attack on you or your agencies, but it’s time for

answers.” The hearings — meant to help understand how the Smokehouse Creek fire bur ned more than 1 million acres and became the largest in state history — put on display the distrust between Panhandle residents and state agencies and industry. In many cases, the residents of the Panhandle are closer to Denver, Albuquerque, and Oklahoma City than Austin. At times, the hearings seemed to be a long-awaited opportunity for locals to vent their frustrations that predate this year’s fires.

Rancher Craig Cowden told the commission his ranch had been burned down multiple times since 2006, with the cause either a utility or oil company

He said he had contacted state regulatory agencies each year about down power lines on his property or fuses littering the ground, but he was constantly told that there was no jurisdiction over these matters

The state’s forest service has concluded that a fallen decayed power line ignited the Smokehouse Creek fire. And Xcel Energy, a Minnesota-based company that provides electricity in the Panhandle, earlier acknowledged its infrastructure appeared “to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire.”

Mike Hoke, director of the Office of Public Engagement for the state’s Public Utilities Commission, said the agency doesn’t conduct inspections and relies

on the utility companies to hire investigators, who then report to them.

“When there are gaps in bureaucracy, it is very frustrating. The one thing I hate to say as a civil servant is ‘It’s not my job.’ That doesn’t help anybody, that’s not satisfying,” Hoke said. “So I hear that frustration loud and clear. But I am bound by statute and by the rules.”

Xcel hired Osmose Utilities Services, a Georgia-based company, to perfor m safety inspections. Osmose declined to participate in this week’s hearings.

Randall Collins, assistant executive director of the Railroad Commission of Texas, said his regulatory agency also doesn’t have the jurisdiction to inspect power lines and didn’t know whose responsibility it fell under. This frustrated committee members.

“It appears we got a standoff between two regulatory agencies saying we don’t have the jurisdiction, and then nothing gets done,” said James Henderson, a landowner and public member of the committee Hoke also revealed that utility companies can hire any thirdparty contractor to inspect utility poles without oversight from their agency

“We regulate the utilities. Who does the inspection is a business decision by them,” he said.

Osmose Utilities Services, a Georgia-based company con-

tracted by Xcel Energy to perfor m safety inspections, skipped its chance to address lawmakers during the three days of public hearings in Pampa.

“It all leads back to where is Osmose,” King said.

State Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Lubbock Republican on the committee, was animated when he suggested it was time for third-party inspection companies to be licensed in Texas.

“I bet if (Osmose) was licensed, they would be here today because if they didn’t, they might risk losing their license,” he told the Public Utilities Commission.

King cautioned that, at the moment, the passion is high to enforce new rules on utility companies and to change the way state agencies operate, but once lawmakers get involved, the best of intentions can backfire.

“I just want to ensure we aren’t opening Pandora’s box,” he said.

Adrian Rodriguez, president of Xcel Energy’s New Mexico and Texas Southwester n Public Service Company, told the Texas Tribune before his testimony on Thursday that his company was excited to hear about some policy suggestions to prevent another wildfire like this from happening again.

He said he has listened to the complaints from ranchers and landowners the past few days and is ready for lawmakers to do what is necessary

MARIA CRANE | THE TEXAS TRIBUNE Rancher Craig Cowden testifies to the House committee investigating the Panhandle wildfires Thursday in Pampa.

Trump demands new judge just days before start of hush-money criminal trial

BY MICHAEL R. SISAK ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump is demanding a new judge just days before his hush-money criminal trial is set to begin, rehashing longstanding grievances with the current judge in a long-shot, eleventh-hour bid to disrupt and delay the case.

Trump’s lawyers — echoing his recent social media complaints — urged Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan to step aside from the case, alleging bias and a conflict of interest because his daughter is a Democratic political consultant. The judge rejected a similar request last August.

The trial is scheduled to begin April 15. It is the first of Trump’s four criminal cases scheduled to go to trial and would be the first-ever criminal trial of a former president. Merchan didn’t immediately rule. The decision is entirely up to him. If he were to exit, it would throw the trial schedule into disarray, giving Trump a long-sought postponement while a new judge gets up to speed.

Messages seeking comment were left for a court spokesperson and for Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan. The Manhattan district attor ney’s office said it sees no reason for Merchan to step aside

The defense’s claims that Loren Merchan is profiting from

her father’s decisions require “multiple attenuated factual leaps here that undercut any direct connection” between her fir m and this case, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote in a letter to the judge

“This daisy chain of innuendos is a far cry from evidence” that Judge Merchan has a direct, personal or financial interest in reaching a particular conclusion, Colangelo wrote. Loren Merchan is president of Authentic Campaigns, which has collected at least $70 million in payments from Democratic candidates and causes since she helped found the company in 2018, records show.

The firm’s past clients include President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Senate Majority PAC, a big-

spending political committee affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Senate Majority PAC has paid Authentic Campaigns $15.2 million, according to campaign finance disclosures.

In a separate development Friday, Merchan blocked Trump’s lawyers from forcing NBC to provide them with materials related to its recent documentary about porn actor Stormy Daniels, a key prosecution witness. He ruled that the defense’s subpoena was “the very definition of a fishing expedition” and didn’t meet a legal burden for requiring a news organization to provide access to its notes and documents.

On Wednesday, Merchan rejected the presumptive Republican nominee’s request to

delay the trial until the Supreme Court rules on presidential immunity claims he raised in another of his criminal cases. The judge has yet to rule on another defense delay request — this one alleging he won’t get a fair trial because of “prejudicial media coverage.”

The hush money case centers on allegations that Trump falsified his company’s records to hide the nature of payments to his for mer lawyer Michael Cohen, who helped Trump bury negative stories during his 2016 campaign. Among other things Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to suppress her claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.

Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses

Trump foreshadowed his lawyers’ renewed push to have Merchan exit the case with posts assailing the judge and his daughter last week on his Truth Social platfor m. Trump suggested, without evidence, that Merchan’s rulings — including his decision to impose a gag order on Trump — were swayed by his daughter’s consulting interests. He wrongly claimed that she had posted a social media photo showing him behind bars. Trump’s attacks on Lauren Merchan led the judge to

expand the gag order to prohibit him from making public statements about his family.

“The Judge has to recuse himself immediately, and right the wrong committed by not doing so last year,” Trump wrote on March 27. “If the Biased and Conflicted Judge is allowed to stay on this Sham ‘Case,’ it will be another sad example of our Country becoming a Banana Republic, not the America we used to know and love.”

Trump similarly pressed the judge in his Washington, D.C election interference case to recuse herself, claiming her past comments about him called into question her ability to be fair.

But U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said there was no reason for her to step aside

Merchan’s daughter featured prominently in the defense’s calls for his recusal last year

They also seized on several small donations the judge made totaling to Democratic causes during the 2020 campaign. They totaled $35, including $15 to Biden. Merchan rejected that request, writing last August that a state court ethics panel had found that Loren Merchan’s work had no bearing on his impartiality. The judge said he was certain of his “ability to be fair and impartial” and said Trump’s lawyers had “failed to demonstrate that there exists concrete, or even realistic reasons for recusal to be appropriate, much less required on these grounds.”

SETH WENIG | AP Judge Juan M. Merchan poses in his chambers in New York on March 14.