As President Trump weighed endorsing Ken Paxton over incumbent Texas Sen. John Cornyn this spring, he was told that damaging revelations were likely to surface about Paxton, according to people familiar with the conversations. Trump was dismissive and said there would be more negative material about Democratic nominee James Talarico.

Trump plowed ahead and endorsed the scandal-plagued Texas attorney general, helping him win the Republican-primary runoff in May. Months later, that decision is looking like Trump’s biggest gamble of the midterms.

Despite efforts by Paxton to paint his opponent as a far-left zealot, Talarico consistently holds a narrow lead in polls, raising a once unthinkable possibility: A Democrat could win statewide office in Texas for the first time since 1994.

Meanwhile, damaging revelations about Paxton continue to emerge. A new scene that could join the list: a previously unreported New Year’s Eve 2024 celebration where Paxton partied in Dubai with two fugitives from U.S. justice and a woman who wasn’t his wife.

As fireworks exploded over the Burj Khalifa skyscraper to welcome 2025, Paxton and his girlfriend Tracy Duhon watched from a luxury high-rise balcony full of people, according to a video of the gathering reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, details of which were contained in court filings and confirmed by people familiar with the matter.

Among those at the event with Texas’ top law-enforcement official were two Americans who had been indicted months before on federal healthcare-fraud charges but failed to return to the U.S., Anosh Ahmed and Sameer Suhail, according to the court records and people familiar with the matter. Ahmed, a healthcare executive, had donated $190,000 to Paxton, campaign finance records show, including $25,000 days after he was indicted.

In a statement, Paxton senior adviser Nick Maddux didn’t directly address the Dubai trip.

“Like President Trump, Ken Paxton has been politically persecuted for years, and every time, voters have seen through it and sent him back to office because they know he has always fought for Texas,” Maddux said.

The two fugitives at the Dubai event had been both indicted in federal court in Illinois in 2024 on charges that they embezzled $15 million from a Chicago hospital where Ahmed was CFO. A businessman with interests in Texas, Ahmed was later charged in a much larger scheme involving at least $195 million in alleged payments from the government for fraudulent Covid-19 tests, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

Both men are now back in the U.S. to face the charges. Ahmed is in custody, and his attorneys have said in court filings that he was abroad at the time of the first indictment and his return to the U.S. was delayed by family health issues. Suhail’s attorney, Adam Sheppard, said civil matters in Dubai affected Suhail’s ability to travel after the indictment and he returned voluntarily when they were resolved.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5912326&forum_id=2#50187070)