‘Politically persecuted’: Ken Paxton hit with another controversy ahead of midterms as report says he partied with fugitives in Dubai

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton reportedly attended a New Year’s Eve 2024 gathering in Dubai that included two Americans who had already been indicted on federal healthcare-fraud charges, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The paper said it reviewed video from the event and corroborated details through court filings and people familiar with what took place.

Paxton and his girlfriend, Tracy Duhon, were among those on a luxury high-rise balcony watching fireworks over the Burj Khalifa as 2025 began, according to the account. The two other Americans present were Anosh Ahmed and Sameer Suhail. Both had been charged months earlier in Illinois but had not returned to the United States by the time of the party.

Earlier in the year, as President Trump weighed whether to endorse Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, he was informed that damaging information about Paxton was likely to emerge, people familiar with the conversations said. Trump brushed the warning aside and pointed instead to material he expected would surface about Democrat James Talarico. He went ahead with the endorsement, and Paxton prevailed in the May runoff.

New details surface on Dubai gathering and ongoing legal history

Ahmed, a healthcare executive with business interests in Texas, had contributed $190,000 to Paxton’s campaigns, records show, with $25,000 of that arriving days after the indictment. Federal charges in Illinois accused Ahmed and Suhail of embezzling $15 million from a Chicago hospital where Ahmed had been CFO. 

Ahmed later faced additional accusations involving at least $195 million in alleged government payments for fraudulent Covid-19 tests; he has pleaded not guilty.

Both men have since returned to face the cases. Ahmed is now in custody. His lawyers have stated in filings that he was outside the country when the initial indictment came down and that family health problems postponed his return.

Suhail’s attorney, Adam Sheppard, said unresolved civil matters in Dubai limited Suhail’s ability to travel afterward, and that he came back voluntarily once those issues cleared. The video itself was recorded by another guest and later referenced in a Texas civil court filing involving that guest as a defendant.

Paxton’s senior adviser, Nick Maddux, did not speak directly to the Dubai trip. He said, “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.”

Paxton’s tenure has included repeated legal fights. He won re-election twice while state securities-fraud charges remained open; those were settled in 2024 after he agreed to pay $300,000 in restitution. Related civil claims brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission had already been dismissed in 2017.

In 2020, eight senior aides reported him to law enforcement over claims he used the office to assist a major donor, triggering an FBI inquiry. State House members impeached him in 2023 on abuse-of-office allegations; the Senate acquitted him, and he has denied the accusations throughout. 

His wife of 38 years sought divorce last year, citing adultery after reports of two affairs, one involving Duhon. The couple met at the 2024 Kentucky Derby. Duhon divorced her own husband the next year, and Paxton’s divorce case is still pending. Despite the personal split, Angela Paxton has urged support for him in public messaging. 

Separate state records indicate that security details accompanied Paxton on 19 foreign trips between 2022 and 2025 to Greece, Italy, South Africa, and Mexico among other places – exceeding the number taken by the governor or lieutenant governor in the same window. Those records do not list the Dubai visit and are described as incomplete.

Talarico’s campaign has focused on Paxton’s travel, growth in personal wealth, and associations. Ads have noted the $6.6 million judgment awarded to whistleblowers who said they lost their jobs for reporting him. Disclosure forms from before Paxton’s first race in 2002 listed assets under $175,000. By 2018 he told a lender his net worth stood at about $5.5 million excluding items moved into a blind trust; he and his wife now hold at least a dozen residential properties.

Kent Schaffer, a special prosecutor who brought charges against Paxton in 2015, said, “It’s just amazing to me that he’s never been held accountable.” 

Allies of Trump say the MAGA base will still carry Paxton in the November 3 contest. A Senate Republican-funded PAC recently aired an ad with Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, who said, “It’s not as much about the individual players on the team, it’s about getting the whole team across the finish line,” without naming him.