Ken Paxton Caught Partying With U.S. Fugitives in Dubai

Texas Attorney General and Senate candidate Ken Paxton spent New Year’s Eve 2024 partying in Dubai with his mistress and two U.S. fugitives indicted on health care fraud charges.In a video obtained by The Wall Street Journal, Paxton can be seen surveying the fireworks over the Dubai skyline next to his girlfriend Tracy Duhon. Indicted fugitives Sameer Suhail and Anosh Ahmed, who donated to Paxton’s campaign, were also present. Suhail and Ahmed were federally indicted in 2024 on charges of embezzling $15 million from the Illinois hospital where Ahmed was chief financial officer. Ahmed was later charged with another even grander scheme in which he allegedly sold $195 million worth of faulty Covid-19 tests to the government.As President Trump weighed endorsing Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn of Texas 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 viewed by The Wall Street Journal, details of which were contained in court filings and confirmed by people familiar with the matter. Read more: https://t.co/RTgNFmUuhn— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 13, 2026 Ahmed donated $190,000 to Paxton’s campaign, including $25,000 just a few days after his indictment. Both men spent significant time outside of the U.S. after their indictments, making time to link with Paxton in Dubai before Ahmed went to Serbia, where he was arrested. Suhail was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. Both are back in U.S. custody now.“Every time you think Ken Paxton couldn’t get worse, he finds a way to prove you wrong,” the Democratic Senate Majority PAC wrote on X. “Turns out, Paxton partied in Dubai with two fugitives from U.S. justice and a woman who wasn’t his wife.”So why did the Texas attorney general spend New Year’s Eve in Dubai with his mistress and two indicted men, one of whom donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to his election efforts? His campaign didn’t have a solid answer. “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,” the Paxton campaign told WSJ.This is just the latest development in one of the most scandal-ridden Senate campaigns in recent history. And yet even through his own grand jury indictment, a public affair and divorce, and multiple controversial leaks in which he made disparaging remarks about the president, Paxton still remains neck and neck with his Democratic opponent James Talarico. More on how it’s going for Paxton:Kimberly Guilfoyle has officially been asked to resign.During her first White House press briefing Tuesday, newly-minted Press Secretary Katie Zacharia was asked whether President Donald Trump planned to remove his ambassador to Greece following allegations that she engaged in illegal conduct.Zacharia revealed that the ouster was already underway. “We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign,” Zacharia said. “She has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well.” In a series of reports, Guilfoyle has been accused of threatening a host country official and offering access to Trump administration officials in return for the quiet payment of a $100,000 credit card bill. She was also caught bragging about her close ties to two Greek tycoons who she said were bankrolling her travels, as she begged to get into a dinner with Eric Trump. The State Department’s inspector general is looking into the allegations, a U.S. official told the Associated Press Monday, but could not say whether a formal investigation had been launched. While taking questions from reporters outside of the White House Monday evening, Trump was asked whether he was considering firing Guilfoyle, the ex-fiancé of his son Donald Trump Jr.“Well, we’re looking at it. Yeah, we’re not happy,” he said bluntly.Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also become increasingly frustrated as the reports about Guilfoyle’s alleged misconduct multiplied, another U.S. official told the AP. Rubio was particularly pissed off after he arrived in Greece last week entirely unaware of the shitstorm that was about to rain down on America’s ambassador there.This story has been updated.Read about what Guilfoyle did:President Donald Trump mocked a protester as they were being physically attacked by his rallygoers. At a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, Monday, Trump’s address was interrupted by a fight in the stands. A video of the incident showed a bald man in a T-shirt punching a woman in the face, pulling her hair, and hitting her repeatedly. “Paid protester,” the president said flatly, as the angry crowd chanted, “USA! USA! USA!”Multiple security officers approached and roughly dragged the woman away, appearing to leave the man who attacked her in his seat.“He’s a paid protester, they’re all paid. They get paid by the lefties in order to destroy our country. They’re scum. But he’s going back home to mom. He’s going back home to mom,” Trump said. It’s not clear whether he was referring to the protester as “he” to be derisive or because he genuinely could not see. “Look at him. Look at him, terrible. Don’t we love law enforcement? Oh, he’s gotta go on a diet. He’s a fat guy. Wow. Wow,” Trump said, the crowd bursting into cheers. “Gotta go on a diet fast, we all do.”The crowd continued to chant: “USA! USA! USA!”holy shit -- a protester at the Trump rally gets physically assaulted after they interrupt the rally by a man who punches her in the face. Trump smears the protester as a "fat guy" https://t.co/DI1TG2uGBH— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 12, 2026 Trump’s unwillingness to condemn his supporters’ violence (and in many cases, his decision to encourage it) is obviously nothing new. But the failure to address violence that unfolds before his own eyes is still shameful behavior from any leader—let alone the president of the United States.Read more about Trump’s rallies:On the campaign trail in Ohio, President Donald Trump decided that complimenting Senator Jon Husted’s posterior was a winning strategy. “I don’t do this with men very often. I started examining his body. And I looked and I watched up and down. I watched his ass and I looked at the whole. And then I looked at his hands. Look at his hands, he’s got these, like, claws. And I got it. You are a great athlete. I didn’t know that because he doesn’t talk about that. Congratulations, now they finally know. That was very good,” Trump said.Trump on Jon Husted: "I don't do this with men very often. I started examining his body, because I didn't know he was a great athlete ... I looked at his ass" https://t.co/VD8jJpireB— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 12, 2026 Trump didn’t stop at Husted’s derrière. He also praised the senator’s jawline, adding, “[W]hy was he such a good footballer? Look at the jawline, he’s tough as hell.” It’s doubtful that Husted will appreciate the comments, because the voters in Ohio don’t rank his posterior as one of their top issues. Husted is in a tight race with Democratic opponent and former three-term Senator Sherrod Brown, with the latest polls showing the two in a dead heat. The fact that Trump is even campaigning for Husted is a huge crack in the GOP’s armor, as Trump won the state in the last three presidential elections. Based on the country’s current anti-Trump sentiment from the Iran war, whimsical tariffs, and abysmal economy resulting from both, Democrats could retake both houses of Congress and throw Husted out on his apparently shapely behind in November. Why Trump thinks that talking up the incumbent senator’s keister is the key to victory is anybody’s guess, although senility and cognitive decline come to mind. Rather than give Husted a slap on the rear, the president’s comments are more likely to make both of them the butt of many jokes. It looks like Kimberly Guilfoyle may be out of a job. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are considering removing Guilfoyle as America’s newly minted ambassador to Greece over allegations that she engaged in illegal conduct, the Associated Press reported Monday. In a series of reports, Guilfoyle has been accused of threatening a host country official and offering access to Trump administration officials in return for the quiet payment of a $100,000 credit card bill. She was also caught bragging about her close ties to two Greek tycoons who she said were bankrolling her travels as she begged to get into a dinner with Eric Trump. As the ex-fiancé of Donald Trump Jr., Guilfoyle’s close ties to the president’s inner circle could earn her some amount of grace. But Rubio has become increasingly frustrated as the reports about Guilfoyle’s alleged misconduct have multiplied, one U.S. official told the AP. Rubio was particularly pissed off after he arrived in Greece last week entirely unaware of the shitstorm that was about to rain down on America’s ambassador there.The State Department’s inspector general is looking into the allegations, a second U.S. official told the AP, but could not say whether a formal investigation had been launched. Read more about Guilfoyle: