Last chance to avoid a trial or a plea deal.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is appealing the securities fraud charges against him to the state’s highest criminal court, in one last bid to dismiss the case before it potentially goes to trial. Paxton’s attorneys filed the appeal Tuesday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, asking the Austin-based court to do away with the three felony indictments facing the attorney general. The case, now more than a year old, centers on allegations that Paxton misled investors in private business dealings from before his time as attorney general. “Ken Paxton has been charged with a crime that simply doesn’t exist, using a grand jury that was improperly impaneled,” Paxton lawyer Bill Mateja said in a statement. “This petition was filed with the Court of Criminal Appeals to not only correct the lower court’s mistake but to end this improper prosecution.” The special prosecutors handling Paxton’s case countered that a lower appeals court has already ruled that many of the issues Paxton is bringing up cannot be addressed before trial. Earlier this year, the Dallas-based Fifth Court of Appeals rejected an attempt by Paxton to get rid of the charges ahead of time. “By simply asking for a ‘do-over,’ Mr. Paxton’s petition falls far short of the exacting standard he must meet before the State’s highest criminal court will review a court of appeals’ decision,” read a statement from the prosecutors, Kent Schaffer and Brian Wice.

See here and here for the latest updates. This was always going to go to the CCA, it was just a matter of how long it took to get there. And for all their supposed pro-prosecution tendencies, the CCA sure does seem to have a soft spot for Republican defendants, so anything can happen here. My guess is that if the CCA takes up the appeal – they could decline to do that, but I can’t imagine they will – the single most likely outcome is that they allow the indictments to stand, on the grounds that this isn’t the time for them to get involved. The more interesting question will be whether they tip their hand about how the future appeal of the trial verdict may go. That’s getting way ahead of ourselves, so let’s sit back for now and see if they take up the case or not. The DMN has more.