We can connect the dots, and the picture we see is blatant disrespect for the public trust.

Angela Paxton is a newly elected state senator who represents a wide swath of North Texas. Her husband, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, faces multiple felony charges that allege violations of state fraud and securities laws.

A lawmaker who cared about the public trust would tread lightly on matters that could impact her husband or his office. Not Angela Paxton.

The McKinney Republican recently filed an audacious bill to authorize the attorney general's office to exempt entrepreneurs from certain state regulations and make it easier for them to market "innovative financial products or services." In plainer English, this means an investment adviser could work without registering with the state's securities board. Instead, the attorney general's office would call the shots. Convenient.

Angela Paxton posits this bill as a boost for consumer choice and entrepreneurship. In reality, it is an open invitation for con artists and bad investment advisers to prey on the unsuspecting and unsophisticated. And, if that isn't problematic enough, she seems unconcerned about the appearance of conflict in giving her husband's office the power to decide on what passes muster. Failure to register as an investment agent is a third-degree felony punishable by a sentence of two to 10 years. That is exactly one of the charges Ken Paxton faces.

Angela Paxton’s bill wouldn’t affect her husband’s case. But the idea of introducing legislation that so closely tracks the charge against the attorney general is mind-boggling.

Appearances matter, and Angela Paxton should have shown greater respect for keeping an arm’s length relationship on issues that could impact her husband or his office. It is hard to imagine that defense lawyers would not cite the new law, if passed, in their defense of the attorney general. And while the bill is not jury tampering, it’s a cynical way to minimize the seriousness of the charges her husband faces.

Imbuing such power in the hands of an elected official who happens to be your indicted spouse doesn’t inspire our confidence in her ability to be independent. It is the kind of ethically challenged, self-serving legislation that Texans should despise.

Lawmakers need to see through this legislative charade and deep-six this bill. During her run for the state senate, Angela Paxton dismissed concerns that her role as lawmaker could create ethical conflicts with her husband or his office. The fact that she’s pushing this bill as one of her first legislative tasks renders that claim dubious at best.

We worried that Angela Paxton would be a walking conflict of interest on matters that concerned her husband. Unfortunately, she is proving our worries to be founded.

This editorial was written by the editorial board and serves as the voice and opinion of The Dallas Morning News.