Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, has asked a federal judge for an emergency order that would force the special counsel, Jack Smith, to preserve all of his investigative records even as Mr. Smith moves toward shutting down the criminal cases he has brought against President-elect Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Paxton’s emergency request — filed on Monday in Federal District Court in Amarillo — came as some of Mr. Trump’s allies have said they want to hold the special counsel accountable for prosecuting Mr. Trump.
Without specifying precisely what actions could be taken, Mr. Paxton wrote that many people close to Mr. Trump are “promising accountability,” giving Mr. Smith “a strong incentive to minimize transparency and accountability in every way possible.”
He added, “This suit is a modest attempt to avoid that obstruction of accountability.”
Mr. Smith brought two federal criminal cases against Mr. Trump: One for plotting to overturn the 2020 election and one for holding on to classified documents after he left office and obstructing their return.
Last week, Mr. Smith gave the clearest signal yet that the federal cases against Mr. Trump may be drawing to an end. A judge in Washington granted Mr. Smith’s request to put on hold all activity in the election case, a pause that Mr. Smith said was needed so that prosecutors could assess the effects of Mr. Trump’s election victory on the future of the case.
A longstanding Justice Department policy bars the prosecution of sitting presidents. Mr. Smith has already opened discussions with Justice Department leaders about how best to wind down both cases. (The classified documents case, brought in Florida, had been dismissed by a judge there, but Mr. Smith has appealed that decision.)
Mr. Paxton filed his emergency request to Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee and the only judge in the Amarillo courthouse.
House Republicans have also demanded that Mr. Smith preserve all of the records related to his two-year-long effort to prosecute Mr. Trump.
On Friday, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who chairs the House Judiciary committee, sent a letter to Mr. Smith warning him to keep hold of “all existing and future records and materials related to the Office of Special Counsel’s investigations and prosecutions of President Trump.”
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