ON THE LAM

Must-Win MAGA Candidate Busted Partying in Dubai With Lover

The Texas attorney general was spotted reveling in the Middle East with two fugitives from American justice.

Donald Trump’s scandal-plagued Senate nominee in Texas faces a fresh nightmare over claims he partied in Dubai with his lover and two fugitives wanted by the Justice Department.

State Attorney General Ken Paxton spent New Year’s Eve 2024 reveling in the Middle East with Tracy Duhon, Anosh Ahmed, and Samer Suhail, the Wall Street Journal reports.

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The MAGA candidate’s wife is not Duhon but state Sen. Angela Paxton, who’s currently divorcing him on “biblical grounds.” Federal prosecutors in the U.S. had slapped Ahmed and Suhail with healthcare fraud charges just months before they attended the party with the top Texas law enforcement official.

Ahmed also gave roughly $190,000 to Paxton’s previous campaigns, including payments of around $25,000 that landed in the attorney general’s war chest after the DOJ had charged the healthcare executive, according to the Journal.

Footage from the event shows fireworks erupting from Dubai’s Burj Khalifa tower to ring in 2025. The camera then pans down to show Paxton and Duhon watching the display together from a balcony, with Suhail standing behind them.

Trump backed Paxton in the Texas primary runoff against incumbent Sen. Jon Cornyn in May despite panic among Republican strategists that it would cost the party a fortune to help him beat Democratic up-and-comer James Talarico, who has inched ahead in the polls since the summer.

Paxton faced three felony securities fraud charges shortly after becoming attorney general in 2015 from his earlier stint as a state representative. He settled those charges in 2024 without admitting guilt. The Securities and Exchange Commission also sued him in 2016, though a judge dismissed the agency’s claims the following year.

The GOP-controlled Texas House then impeached Paxton in 2023 over allegations of bribery, corruption, abuse of office, and obstruction of justice over his dealings with a donor. The state Senate later acquitted him, but not before proceedings revealed he allegedly had the same donor hire a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.

Since Trump endorsed Paxton, Republican-aligned groups have poured roughly $206.4 million into supporting his bid, including $84.4 million spent backing him and $122 million on attacking Talarico, according to political spending tracker PaidForPolitics.

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But the biggest obstacle to Paxton’s campaign arguably remains the candidate himself. The 63-year-old has been caught out by at least five leaked audio clips from a D.C. fundraiser in September, including snippets where he trashed the 80-year-old president.

Paxton attacked Trump directly in one of the clips, saying the president’s performance at the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas earlier that month had dented his support among voters. He told donors and lobbyists in another that the White House had effectively hijacked his campaign, and in a third that his low numbers were the fault of Trump’s war with Iran and widespread unaffordability.

A fourth and fifth leak showed him laughing about mandatory spending cuts to federal welfare and taking shots at Sen. Cornyn for not doing enough to support his bid. The embarrassment deepened after a leaked fundraising appeal also showed him at a significant disadvantage against Talarico, along with a leaked deposition showing him blaming his wife for the securities fraud charges he faced in 2015.

Paxton told Fox News on Monday that “just because they were able to clip a few things doesn’t mean that’s actually what I meant,” and tried to assure voters that he is, in fact, very fond of the president.

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“I have supported President Trump, I love President Trump,” he told the network. “He’s been out working extremely hard to help me get elected, and I really appreciate him. He’s done a great job as president.”

The Texas Senate candidate also tried to steer the debate back to where he feels he is strongest against his opponent. “Let’s just go back to the record,” he said. “Not this game that James Talarico’s played the whole time, which is, let’s not talk about Ken Paxton’s actual record, and let’s not talk about my actual record.”

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His record now includes the Journal’s report about the New Year’s Eve party Paxton and Duhon attended in Dubai with Ahmed and Suhail, whom a federal court accuses of stealing $15 million from a hospital in Chicago. Ahmed has faced further charges over a $195 million scheme involving fraudulent COVID-19 tests. Both men have since returned to face prosecution in the U.S.

The Daily Beast has contacted Paxton’s campaign for comment on this story.

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