Many Americans have questioned the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is doing something about it.

Paxton has just launched an investigation into Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson to find out whether or not they engaged in gain-of-function research and misled the public regarding the vaccines.

Paxton believes if these companies misrepresented the efficacy of the vaccines, they could have violated the Deceptive Trade Practices Act in Texas.

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales of "The News & Why It Matters" had Paxton on the show to discuss his investigation.

“We’re going to ask questions about their trials, about what they knew at the time, when they knew it, and see if they told us the truth,” Paxton explains, “or whether they misled the public about the efficacy of their vaccine.”

Gonzales asks Paxton how he plans to prove it, as she thinks “they’re not going to provide documents that maybe they have.”

“Well, the problem with them not providing the documents they have — that potentially turns into criminal action and certainly results in other risks for their company,” Paxton says.

However, that doesn’t mean the company will comply.

“They could decide ‘Hey, we don’t want to disclose information,’” he explains. “You know, usually the cover-up’s worse than the crime.”

While this could be the case, “there will be some civil penalties and it will cost them some money” if they’re honest about what they knew and did not know. If they’re caught in a lie, they could be facing criminal charges.

Paxton continues, explaining that “if they answer the questions and we find that they’ve misled the public — then we’ve got different issues that we either have to settle with them or we have to sue them to recover the damages that they’ve caused.”

Gonzales notes that if that’s the case, there’s a lot of money behind them to recover damages.

She adds that the Moderna CEO made nearly 400 million last year on his stock options and owns a reported 2.8 billion shares in the company.

Albert Borla of Pfizer made a $33 million salary last year “off the backs of the American public,” Gonzales says.

Want more from The News & Why It Matters?

To enjoy more roundtable rundowns of the top stories of the day, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.