By Jack Phillips
Contributing Writer
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said on Thursday that the FBI responded to his request to help arrest state House Democratic lawmakers who left the state in a bid to block a GOP-led redistricting effort.
Earlier this week, Cornyn sent a letter to the FBI and its director, Kash Patel, to request federal assistance in apprehending the Texas House Democrats who fled to other states, such as Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York, in a bid to block Republicans from conducting House business.
Earlier this week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also ordered the arrest of those Democrats, although his power is limited to within the state of Texas.
In a post on X, Cornyn said that Patel “has responded to my request to assist state & local law enforcement locate the runaway Texas House Democrats and investigate potential offenses.”
“Thank you Director Patel for your swift response [and] action!” Cornyn said, without providing more details about what Patel had said.
Meanwhile, the FBI director hasn’t publicly responded to Cornyn’s request or the political situation that’s unfolding in Texas.
The FBI’s press office was contacted for comment but received no response as of Thursday morning.
On Wednesday, Abbott suggested in an interview with podcast host Dana Loesch that the FBI was going to assist in the search for the Democrats. Earlier that day, Abbott urged the Texas Supreme Court to remove state Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the Texas House Democratic caucus.
“It’s my understanding that the FBI is going to search for these derelict Texas House members, in whatever state they may be in, and help identify them, and maybe work with us to bring them back,” the Texas governor said in the interview.
The Democratic state lawmakers said they’ve left Texas to block the state House from reaching a quorum, a necessary step for House Republicans to advance the redistricting legislation or other measures.
While Cornyn did not make mention of the redistricting effort, he said in his letter that the state House needs to conduct business to deal with issues plaguing Texas, such as providing funding in the aftermath of the deadly floods that left more than 100 people dead in the central part of the state last month.
He also said that he is concerned that the state lawmakers had “solicited or accepted funds,” allowing them to “avoid their legislative duties,” which he said may be a form of “bribery or other public corruption offenses.”
Cornyn was referring to donations that were provided to Democrats to pay the daily fines they face for preventing the legislative session from starting.
Earlier this week, Wu said that state Democrats are “getting a lot of small-dollar donations … and that’s going to be used to help keep this thing going.”
Wu, a former prosecutor from Houston, said the suggestion of bribery is a “monstrously stupid” notion.
“No member is leaving because they might get a campaign contribution that might restore some of the money that they’re spending,” he said.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, has welcomed the Texas lawmakers to his state but indicated that he has not financially supported them. Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who has built a national following in recent weeks, said the lawmakers told Pritzker they didn’t want him to fund their trip.
“We’ve already been inundated with donations from across the state of Texas, from across the country, just regular people donating $5, $10, $15,” Talarico said this week, claiming their donations are “appropriate, because this fight is for the people and it should be funded by the people.”
“We don’t have billionaires who are funding this operation.”
Cornyn also said that his request to Patel and the FBI is a “time-sensitive” issue because the Legislature is in a special session with two weeks left. President Donald Trump has also said that he backs the redistricting effort.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
