MCKINNEY, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, state Senator Angela Paxton, said their McKinney home was targeted by prank emergency calls on New Year's Day, a practice also known as "swatting."
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Angela Paxton said they were victims of swatting on Monday but were not at their McKinney home during the ordeal.
She thanked McKinney authorities for handling the incident "with great professionalism." McKinney police confirmed that officers responded to the Paxtons' home on Monday but they did not provide more information. The Texas Department of Public Safety is investigating the case.
The purpose of a swatting call is to get police SWAT teams to swarm a victim’s home.
Ken Paxton also posted about the incident to X on Wednesday, saying a "currently unidentified caller made a false report to 911 describing a life-threatening situation at our home in McKinney."
"We were not home at the time and were made aware of the false report when a state trooper, who was contacted by McKinney police, informed us of the incident," Paxton posted.
While Paxton did not accuse anyone for the alleged swatting incident, he did accuse House Speaker Dade Phelan and the Dallas Morning News of publicly posting his address. The House in October released impeachment-related documents that initially included Paxton's address; the documents were later taken down and redacted.
It was not clear why Paxton accused the Morning News in the release of the documents, which were posted online by the House. Morning News officials in a statement told WFAA that it's "incorrect to say that The Dallas Morning News 'doxxed' Attorney General Ken Paxton," as Paxton alleged.
"Like other newsgathering outlets, The News reported on the release of documents from the Texas House of Representatives but did not publish them on our website," the statement said.
Phelan's office has not responded to a request for comment.
At least three members of Congress reported “swatting” incidents over the past week, including New York Republican Brandon Williams, Florida Republican senator Rick Scott, and Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene.
In a public alert about swatting in 2022, the FBI warned that “individuals who engage in this activity use technology, such as caller ID spoofing, social engineering, TTY and prank calls to make it appear that the emergency call is coming from the victim’s phone.”
Last year, Ken Paxton was at the center of an impeachment trial inside the Texas Capitol following a whistleblower lawsuit filed by four former Attorney General Office employees.
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