Political commentator Aaron Parnas has published an article linking Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to Paul Pressler.
Pressler, a Texas appeals court judge and Republican activist, was co-architect of the “conservative resurgence” in the Southern Baptist Convention.
Aaron Parnas
Parnas, who has millions of followers on social media, wrote that Paxton, current Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Texas, “spent more than a decade cultivating a political alliance with Paul Pressler, the once-revered Southern Baptist power broker who was accused by at least eight men of sexually abusing them, and with the two men most closely tied to covering for him. Even after the allegations became public, Paxton kept taking their money, kept using their endorsements, and kept standing by them.”
Pressler died in virtual disgrace in 2024, with SBC leaders not even acknowledging his passing until BNG reported on it. He also recently was the subject of a lengthy profile in Texas Monthly magazine.
That article by Robert Downen said there had been “abundant suspicions” about Pressler’s relationships with young men for decades, beginning in the late 1970s when he was removed from a ministry at First Baptist Church of Houston.
In December 2017, Duane Rollins filed a lawsuit claiming Pressler began raping him in 1979, when Rollins was 14 and Pressler was a justice on Texas’ 14th Court of Appeals. He also claimed Pressler continued abusing him two to three times a month for the next 25 years.
Parnas notes: “At least seven other men came forward with similar accusations once the case was filed.”
Despite all this, Parnas says, Paxton continued to praise Pressler and receive political donations from Pressler and his wife, Nancy.
Parnas then links the story to Jared Woodfill, Pressler’s longtime law partner and the man who allegedly enabled the abuse for more than a decade. Woodfill has testified that he knew about Pressler’s predilection for young men as early as 2004.
Parnas writes: “In a 2023 campaign ad for Woodfill’s run for the Texas House, Paxton praised him as someone who ‘has defended religious liberty, opposed mask and vax mandates, and is challenging election fraud in Harris County,’ declaring ‘true conservatives need to take control of the House’ and that ‘Jared Woodfill can lead the way.’”
And when Paxton faced impeachment in the Texas House in 2023, “Woodfill became one of his most active defenders.”