WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is moving to muzzle a former state regulator who says he was ordered in 2010 to drop a fraud investigation into Trump University for political reasons.
Paxton’s office issued a cease and desist letter on Friday to former Deputy Chief of Consumer Protection John Owens after Owens was widely quoted in news reports. Owens said his team had a solid case against the now-presumptive Republican presidential nominee for scamming students of his namesake real estate seminar.
Owens’ boss at the time was then-Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is now the state’s GOP governor.
Spokesman Matt Hirsch said Friday that Abbott played no role in the decision to drop the case against Trump, who three years later gave donations totaling $35,000 to his gubernatorial campaign.