Civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt says he’s running for Texas attorney general

Lee Merritt, a civil rights lawyer who has represented several North Texas families of Black people killed by police officers, said in a video posted to Twitter Saturday he is running for the state’s attorney general.

He floated the idea at a Friday protest at the Collin County Courthouse in response to the in-custody death of Marvin David Scott III. Merritt is representing the Scott family, and told a reporter that he was considering running against current attorney general Ken Paxton.

“I accidentally made an announcement yesterday that I plan to run for Texas attorney general,” Merritt said on the video. “I intend to run.”

Besides the Scott case, Merritt has represented several families of slain Black men and women in North Texas, including Atatiana Jefferson, killed by a Fort Worth officer while standing in her own home; Darius Tarver, shot dead by Denton police while wielding a frying pan; Jordan Edwards, killed by a Balch Springs officer who fired into a moving vehicle of teenagers leaving a party; and Botham Jean, killed in his own apartment by an off-duty Dallas cop. Merritt also represents the family of Ahmaud Aubrey, killed by three white men while jogging in rural Georgia.

He’s also had a few public missteps, including representing a woman in 2018 whose claims of sexual assault by a state trooper were proved to be fabricated when body camera footage showed no such incident. Merritt apologized for bringing national attention to the false claims.

“It is deeply troubling when innocent parties are falsely accused and I am truly sorry for any trouble these claims may have caused Officer Hubbard and his family,” Merritt said in a statement at the time. “I take full responsibility for amplifying these claims to the point of national concern.”

Merritt is a McKinney resident, just like Paxton. Paxton’s tenure has been mired by state and federal investigations into corruption and misuse of public office. He faces charges of felony securities fraud in a 2015 case that has yet to be tried. He also is under FBI investigation for misuse of office and bribery.

In Merritt’s Twitter video, he said Paxton isn’t doing enough to provide training for police and mental health services for those in crisis. He has said that both Scott and Tarver died while experiencing a mental health crisis.

“It’s clear [Paxton] doesn’t want to do his job so I decided I’ll go ahead and take it,” Merritt said in the video. “I’ll announce later.”

It is unclear if Merritt plans to formally file to run against Paxton.