Latest news with #JuddStone
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Top Paxton deputy accused of witness tampering during impeachment trial
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's current and former top deputies are flinging shocking allegations at each other in court filings, from sexual harassment to falsifying documents and tampering with witnesses during Paxton's impeachment trial. While both sides go to great lengths to stress that Paxton was not involved in any of the alleged malfeasances, the infighting threatens to become an unwelcome sideshow to Paxton's bid for U.S. Senate. The latest filings accuse current First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster of 'obstructing justice, committing official oppression, and tampering with witnesses' while Paxton was facing impeachment in 2023. He was eventually acquitted by the Texas Senate. Former Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone and assistant attorney general Chris Hilton say Webster — Paxton's second-in-command — told them he 'would pressure potential witnesses to flee the State to evade being subpoenaed to disclose information harmful to Webster' during Senate proceedings. Stone and Hilton detailed these accusations in a lawsuit and State Bar of Texas complaint filed this week and first reported by the Houston Chronicle. These filings come just a month after a lawsuit was filed against Stone and Hilton alleging they were pushed out of the agency due to sexual harassment. That suit, filed by OAG employee Jordan Eskew, contained an email written by Webster, in which he says Stone admitted to the sexual harassment. Stone also told female employees he was a sociopath who had fantasized about raping Webster in front of his kids, Webster said in the email, dated December 2024. But Webster falsified that email to retroactively change why Stone and Hilton had left the agency, the two former employees now say, calling the allegations a 'loathsome lie with no basis in fact, concocted wholly with the intention of slandering Stone.' The lawsuit says this is part of Webster's ongoing campaign to discredit the two lawyers, including using the power of the attorney general's office to dissuade a potential major client from working with their firm. 'Texans should be disappointed to know that the person leading the Office of the Attorney General cares so little for the responsibility attendant to his office that he will stop at nothing to enrich himself and harm his personal enemies,' the lawsuit says. Stone and Hilton were among several agency employees who took leaves of absence to defend Paxton during the impeachment trial, which concluded in September 2023. The next month, The Texas Tribune reported they had permanently left the agency amid a disagreement over if and when they would return to work. Both sides cite support for their positions from Paxton himself. Webster says the attorney general immediately approved his request to terminate Stone and Hilton once the alleged sexual harassment came to light, but the new filings say Paxton opposed the release of Webster's email. 'On the recommendation of members of his staff who disagreed with Webster's actions, the Attorney General directed that OAG recall the email and rule that it was improperly released,' the lawsuit says. 'Webster, realizing that Stone and Hilton had obtained the Attorney General's support in rescinding the email, decided to foil the Attorney General's efforts. Eskew abruptly cut off negotiations and filed her meritless litigation against Plaintiffs.' The State Bar has 30 days to determine whether to investigate the complaint. There is no official timeline for either lawsuit to get resolved, meaning both sides could be sparring well into election season. Neither Webster nor the Office of the Attorney General immediately responded to a request for comment. Disclosure: State Bar of Texas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Big news: 20 more speakers join the TribFest lineup! New additions include Margaret Spellings, former U.S. secretary of education and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center; Michael Curry, former presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church; Beto O'Rourke, former U.S. Representative, D-El Paso; Joe Lonsdale, entrepreneur, founder and managing partner at 8VC; and Katie Phang, journalist and trial lawyer. Get tickets. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Disturbing sexual fantasies of top Texas government lawyer revealed as he's forced out of job
A top government lawyer was forced to resign after he had 'a disturbing sexual fantasy' about a colleague 'being violently anally raped by a cylindrical asteroid' in front of his wife and children, a lawsuit has revealed. Former Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone, 42, stepped down in October 2023 after admitting to telling several horrified employees about his deranged desire 'in graphic detail', according to a fresh civil complaint seen by Stone's fantasy is detailed in an internal letter penned by Brent Webster, the first assistant attorney general of Texas, who is the subject of the crazed reverie. Addressed to other top officials in the AG's office, Webster's 2024 letter is part of a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by Stone's former assistant claiming her boss sexually harassed her while failing to pay her wages in full. Webster's letter appeals to the office for protection for himself and his family against Austin-based Stone, who he described as 'a deeply unhinged obsessive human being who is one bad day away from murder'. 'I have serious safety concerns for my family and me,' the government employee wrote in December 2024. 'If you'll recall, we gave Judd the opportunity last year to resign instead of being fired for credible complaints of sexual misconduct by two female OAG employees. 'It appears he is still very much obsessed with me, and given what has transpired in the past, and things he's done or told me, I think you'll understand my fear.' Webster's letter details how the female former assistant of Stone's came to his office in floods of tears and disclosed the fantasy about him 'being violently anally raped by a cylindrical asteroid in front of my wife and children'. 'According to this employee, Judd publicly described this in excruciating detail over a long period of time, to a group of OAG employees, Office of the Governor employee(s), federal judges, and other non-government employees at a table,' Webster said. 'The female employee conveyed that she was so disgusted by the violent sexual nature of the discussion that she left the table to get away from it. 'When she came back, people at the table harassed her, joking that she 'couldn't handle people talking about dicks.'' Christopher Hilton, another legal heavyweight who was Stone's partner at his law firm, Stone Hilton PLLC, was also present and he too resigned in October 2023 for failing to address the harassment Stone displayed towards junior employees. 'Chris Hilton was clearly aware that this female employee was uncomfortable, shrugged at her, and did nothing,' Webster wrote. 'The female employee had other concerns about treatment of women and sexual harassment and exhibited emotional distress as she told me this story. 'She tearfully expressed to me that she could never work with Chris or Judd ever again. 'We finished the long conversation at the close of business. I was so disturbed by the violent sexual fantasies about me that I took the weekend to process the news.' 'Due to his pedophilic desire to have my children see me raped by a cylindrical asteroid, I am concerned that Judd poses a physical threat to me and my family,' Webster wrote. The sexual harassment came after Stone Hilton PLLC was formed to defend Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton during his impeachment trial in 2023. Stone, a Harvard Law graduate who previously clerked for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, took a leave of absence from his post as Solicitor General at the AG's office to focus on the case. So too did Hilton from his role as Chief of the General Litigation Division. Two female employees at the firm told Webster they 'came to fear' Stone 'as a result of working in close quarters with him in a small house that he picked out for them all to do impeachment work in'. They detailed specific incidents in the May 2025 lawsuit, which also names Hilton as a defendant, including what allegedly unfolded on June 16, 2023, when the Stone Hilton team went to the Mort Subite Belgian Beer Bar for lunch. The female assistant said Hilton and Stone ordered four shots for four people at the table without asking, and told her to take one. She said, 'that is the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted', and Stone replied: 'I highly doubt that is the most disgusting thing that has ever been in your mouth'. The assistant said that on another occasion, Stone told her: 'In this firm, there are no rules. You can say whatever slurs you want.' He appeared to strongly ascribe to this himself. In one incident he called her 'white trash' for wearing turquoise earrings, according to her lawsuit. Stone also regularly 'screamed' at her over incidents including apparently taking too long to find a restaurant which would accommodate his large BBQ order as takeout. He allegedly took her to his office and screamed at her over the incident, before asking if she could try to cry while returning to the communal area. 'Do you think you can make yourself cry before you walk out? You know, to mess with everyone,' Stone told the assistant, according to her lawsuit. He yelled at her again after she completed the task of bringing a propane tank to work so they could grill in the office the following day, again for apparently bringing the tank too late despite it being within the time frame he requested. She added that Stone was spotted 'screaming' at female attorneys in the hallways on several occasions. The assistant's duties involved picking up alcohol for Stone and Hilton so they could day-drink in the office, and he once berated her for commenting on how full she had made a Manhattan cocktail at his request. To add insult to injury, the law firm underpaid the assistant by $5,000 a month - sending her a paycheck of $10,000 monthly instead of the promised $15,000 - according to her complaint. When the attorneys and assistants returned to the AG's office in October 2023 after successfully defending Paxton at his impeachment trial, the female employees aired their complaints to senior officials including Webster. Webster confronted them about the accusations, and Stone 'promptly admitted that all of the allegations were true'. Hilton did not deny them either. The disgraced duo were told to resign, which they did. 'Both women went out of their way to confirm that they knew that AG Paxton knew nothing about this, and that they wanted to make sure that I told AG Paxton so that he knew the danger that Judd and Chris posed to them and perhaps other women,' Webster wrote. He added that Paxton did take immediate action 'once he learned of the horrifying conduct Chris and Judd engaged in.' Webster also alleged that after his termination, it emerged that Stone 'had also previously been asked to resign from a position working for US Senator Ted Cruz due to sexual harassment complaints'. The latest lawsuit from Stone's assistant asks for payouts of an undisclosed amount from Stone for alleged 'past and future mental anguish damages, emotional pain, suffering', unpaid wages, and attorney fees among others. She also requested a jury trial in the US District Court, Western District of Texas division in Austin, accusing Stone of intentional infliction of emotional distress, violations of the fair labor standards act, and breach of contract.
