Three of the Paxtons’ homes are each listed as a primary residence

Documents reviewed by the AP show the Paxtons hold mortgages on three homes — one in suburban Dallas, two in Austin — that are each listed as their primary residence. The designation comes with a considerable financial upside.

Interest rates on primary homes are significantly lower than those for mortgages on secondary homes or investment properties, saving buyers tens of thousands of dollars — if not more — over the life of a loan.

The suburban Dallas home is where the Paxtons’ family has long resided. It’s where Ken and Angela Paxton are registered to vote. It is in the state Senate district that Angela Paxton represents in the Legislature, which Ken Paxton held before his election in 2014 to be attorney general. It’s also where Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign website until recently said he lived.

Making a case against Paxton would require “establishing both that Paxton was aware of the contents of the mortgage document, and also that he was actively aware at the time that he signed it that this was not going to be a primary residence,” said Jennifer E. Laurin, a professor at the University of Texas Law School in Austin.

Legal experts say it is possible that the Paxtons’ lenders prepared the documents and that the couple did not carefully review them before signing.

Even if that were the case, some legal experts say that Paxton, as an attorney and Texas’ top law enforcement officer, ought to have known better.

“If he filled out lender documents knowing that they were false, then that is a false statement to obtain a mortgage on favorable terms. That would be actionable,” said Arif Lawji, a veteran Texas real estate attorney. “He’s the chief enforcement officer. You have to be accountable for stuff you do that’s wrong.”

Paxton collected two ‘homestead’ tax breaks

In 2018, the Paxtons simultaneously collected homestead property tax breaks on their family’s home in suburban Dallas, as well as on a $1.1 million home in Austin, property records and tax statements show.

That tax break is a property tax reduction that a homeowner is eligible to collect on one property that is also their primary home.

Officials at the Travis Central Appraisal District, the government agency that assesses property in Austin, said the benefits of the tax break transferred to the Paxtons from a previous owner of the home for the duration of 2018. Some property owners forgo the yearlong tax break when buying a home, the assessing officials said.

Paxton may have violated mortgage terms by renting properties

Separately, land records indicate the Paxtons may have violated the terms of at least two mortgages on other houses they own. The mortgage on a home in College Station, Texas, says the property is for the Paxtons’ exclusive use and cannot be rented out. Doing so would be grounds for terminating the mortgage, the document states. The home has been listed for rent on real estate websites on-and-off since at least 2022.

Ken Paxton also holds a $1.2 million mortgage on a “5 bedroom luxury cabin” in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, that is for rent on Airbnb and other short-term rental sites, records show. The property’s mortgage stipulates that it cannot be rented out.

Representatives for Stifel Bank, Cornerstone Home Lending and Benchmark Mortgage, which issued the mortgages in question, did not respond to requests for comment.

Schiff and James come under fire from GOP

Paxton’s real estate dealings are in many ways distinct from those of James and Schiff, the Democrats targeted by the Trump administration.

The investigation of James centers on forms she signed in 2023 while helping a niece buy a home in Virginia. One form stated that James intended to occupy the home as her “principal residence.” But in other documents, the New York attorney general made clear she had no intention of living there. An email to the mortgage loan broker two weeks before she signed the documents stated the property “WILL NOT be my primary residence.”

“As I’ve said from the beginning, if prosecutors want to know that truth about Attorney General James’ mortgage applications, we are ready and waiting with the facts,” said Lowell, James’ attorney.

For over a decade, Schiff owned homes in Maryland and California, the state he represents, that were both designated as his primary residence. In 2020, then a congressman, Schiff designated his Maryland property as a second home — a step Paxton has not taken.

Paxton has faced legal and political challenges

Paxton’s real estate dealings are not the first time he has drawn scrutiny for his conduct while in office.

Before his election as attorney general, Paxton, then a state senator, admitted in 2014 to violating Texas securities law and paid a fine.

He spent roughly 10 years under state indictment on securities charges while serving as attorney general. The charges were eventually dropped in 2024. Other alleged misdeeds in office led to his impeachment by Texas’ GOP-controlled House in 2023. He was acquitted in a trial by the Senate.

Angela Paxton did not cast a vote in his impeachment trial and recently filed for divorce, citing Ken Paxton’s infidelity and other “recent discoveries.” She did not elaborate.

What ultimately unleashed the impeachment push was Paxton’s relationship with Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, who pleaded guilty this year to one count of making a false statement to a financial institution.

In 2020, eight top aides in Paxton’s office told the FBI they were concerned the state’s top law enforcement official was misusing his office to help Paul over the developer’s unproven claims about an elaborate conspiracy to steal $200 million of his properties.

The House impeachment managers accused Paxton of attempting to interfere in foreclosure lawsuits and issuing legal opinions to benefit Paul. They also alleged that Paul employed a woman with whom Paxton had an affair in exchange for legal help and that the developer paid for expensive renovations to the attorney general’s home in Austin.

That would be the same house that he declared in mortgage documents was his third primary residence.