Texas AG claimed three homes as primary residence. Democrats are being probed for similar issue

WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, Angela, are longtime owners of a $1.5 million house in a gated community outside Dallas. In 2015, they snapped up a second home in Austin. Then another.

The problem: Mortgages signed by the Paxtons contained inaccurate statements declaring that each of those three houses was their primary residence, enabling the now-estranged couple to improperly lock in low interest rates, according to an Associated Press review of public records. The lower rates will save the Paxtons tens of thousands of dollars in payments over the life of the loan, legal experts say.

The records also revealed that the Paxtons collected an impermissible homestead tax break on two of those homes, and they have routinely flouted lending agreements on some of their other properties.

It is a federal and state crime to knowingly make false statements on mortgage documents. It's also against the law in Texas to collect a homestead tax break on two separate properties. Violating the terms of a mortgage could allow lenders recourse to seek full payment of a loan, according to legal experts.

The mortgage revelations are likely to become fodder in the Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat in which Paxton is seeking to topple the incumbent, John Cornyn. The situation is further complicated by the Trump administration's criminal pursuit of Democrats over similar issues.

President Donald Trump has accused two of his political foes — Sen. Adam Schiff of California and New York Attorney General Letitia James — of committing mortgage fraud, though legal experts say the circumstances are less serious.

The Democrats have long been objects of Trump’s ire for having led various investigations into his conduct as president and as a business executive.

Paxton, himself, has weighed in on the investigation of James, saying he hoped authorities would look into her conduct. “I hope that if she’s done something wrong, I hope that she’s actually held accountable,” he told supporters last month.

The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation of James, FBI director Kash Patel told Fox News in May. The department received a criminal referral for Schiff last week from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, its director William Pulte confirmed in a social media post.

Neither the Justice Department nor the FHFA responded to an inquiry about whether they may investigate Paxton, too.

James’ attorney, Abbe Lowell, urged the Trump administration to investigate Paxton instead.

“If this administration was genuinely interested in rooting out fraud, it appears they should stop wasting their time on the baseless and discredited allegations against the New York Attorney General James and turn their attention to Texas,” said Lowell, a prominent Washington attorney whose past clients include Hunter Biden, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

In a statement, Marisol Samayoa, a Schiff spokeswoman, blasted the criminal referral as “a transparent attempt” by Trump “to punish a perceived political foe who is committed to holding him to account.” She added that Schiff disclosed to his lenders that he owned another home that was a principal residence and sought guidance from an attorney.

It is unlikely that Paxton, a staunch Trump ally, will face the same federal scrutiny as James and Schiff. It’s equally doubtful that Paxton will face much legal trouble in Texas: His office is one of the primary agencies tasked with investigating allegations of mortgage fraud.

Ken Paxton and his spokesman did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Angela Paxton, who is a state senator in Texas, did not respond to requests made through her office.

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.

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.”

Low interest rates are not the only perk the Paxtons secured, records show. In 2018, they 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.

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

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 located 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.

Lawji said the Paxtons’ simultaneous collection of two homestead tax breaks appears to be a more clearcut violation. That is because one must obtain a form and submit it to taxing authorities to receive such a tax break, making it an “intentional act,” he said.

The tax break was worth several thousand dollars, a fact that confounded real estate lawyers. “Why would you try to do all of this,” Lawji said, “when you are the attorney general? That’s a bigger question to me than the money, when you are AG and have to enforce this law.”

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.

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’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.

FILE - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton makes a statement at his office, May 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

FILE - Suspended Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton, center, sits with his attorneys Tony Buzbee, left, and Mitch Little, right, as his impeachment trial continues in the Senate Chamber at the Texas Capitol, Sept. 15, 2023, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

FILE - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, at the National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md., Feb. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

FILE - Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, wife of impeached state Attorney General Ken Paxton, sits in the Senate Chamber at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas, May 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Several Middle Eastern allies of the United States have urged the Trump administration to hold off on strikes against Iran for the government's deadly crackdown on protesters, according to an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter.

Top officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have raised concerns in the last 48 hours that a U.S. military intervention would shake the global economy and destabilize an already volatile region, said the diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive conversations.

Oil prices fell on Thursday as the markets appeared to take note of President Donald Trump's shifting tone as a sign that he’s leaning away from attacking Iran after days of launching blistering threats at Tehran for its brutal crackdown.

Nevertheless, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday maintained that “all options remain on the table” for Trump as he deals with Iran.

“The truth is only President Trump knows what he’s going to do and a very, very small team of advisers are read into his thinking on that,” Leavitt said. She added, “He continues to closely monitor the situation on the ground in Iran.”

The nationwide protests challenging Iran’s theocracy appeared increasingly smothered Thursday, a week after authorities shut the country off from the world and escalated a bloody crackdown that activists say has killed at least 2,637 people.

The delicate diplomacy from Arab officials comes during a period of rhetorical whiplash from Trump.

Trump, in a matter of a day, went from offering assurances to Iranian citizens that “help is on its way” and urging them to take over their country's institutions to abruptly declaring on Wednesday that he had received information from “very important sources on the other side” that Iran had stopped killing protesters and was not going forward with executions.

The Arab officials also urged senior Iranian officials to quickly end the violent repression of protesters. They warned that any Iranian response to a U.S. action against the U.S. or other targets in the region would have significant repercussions for Iran, the diplomat said.

Asked about reports of allies asking Trump to hold off on the strikes at a White House briefing, Leavitt did not directly address the matter.

Ambassador Mike Waltz, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations, said military action is an option that remains in play.

“President Trump is a man of action, not endless talk like we see at the United Nations,” said in remarks at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the Iran protests. “He has made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter.”

But Trump himself appeared to send signals he could be backing away from a potential U.S. strike on Iran after days of threatening one was in the offing.

He took to social media to highlight a Fox News headline about the suspension of a death sentence for an Iranian shopkeeper, 26-year-old Erfan Soltani.

Iranian state media denied Soltani had been condemned to death. Iranian judicial authorities said Soltani was being held in a detention facility outside of the capital.

Alongside other protesters, he has been accused of “propaganda activities against the regime,” state media said.

“This is good news. Hopefully, it will continue!” Trump said in his post about the reported pause in the execution of the shopkeeper. The White House later asserted that Iran had halted 800 scheduled executions.

Trump has been known to purposefully display ambiguity about his intentions to maintain an element of surprise.

Last June, as Trump was weighing whether to follow Israel as it carried out strikes on Iran, Leavitt read a message to reporters that she said came “directly from the president” in which Trump said he would decide whether to strike Iran “within the next two weeks.”

Less than two days later, Trump ordered B-2 bombers to carry out strikes on critical Iranian nuclear sites.

Jeremy Shapiro, research director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Trump may have decided to hold off on strikes because of concerns about the current U.S. force posture in the Middle East.

There are currently no U.S. aircraft carriers, considered a critical asset a significant military operation, in the region after the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group were deployed to the U.S. Southern Command region as the part of a massive counter-narcotics operation focused on Venezuela.

“It might be that they’re delaying things and using the time for getting that posture correct,” Shapiro said.

The Trump administration on Thursday also announced new sanction s against Iran.

Included in Thursday’s sanctions is the secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security, whom the Treasury Department accuses of being one of the first officials to call for violence against Iranian protesters.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also designated 18 people and companies that the U.S. says have participated in laundering money from sales of Iranian oil to foreign markets as part of a shadow banking network of sanctioned Iranian financial institutions Bank Melli and Shahr Bank.

Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein contributed reporting.

President Donald Trump waves during his arrival at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)