Latest news with #R-Beaumont
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Attorney General Ken Paxton's former aides win $6.6 million in whistleblower case
A Travis County district court judge on Friday awarded $6.6 million to four former senior aides to Attorney General Ken Paxton who said they were improperly fired after reporting Paxton to the FBI. Judge Catherine Mauzy stated in her judgment that the plaintiffs — Blake Brickman, Mark Penley, David Maxwell and Ryan Vassar — had proven by a 'preponderance of the evidence' that Paxton's office had violated the Texas Whistleblower Act. Each of the four were awarded between $1.1 and $2.1 million for wages lost, compensation for emotional pain, attorney's fees and various other costs as a result of the trial. The judgment also said Paxton's office did not dispute any issue of fact in the case, which stopped the Attorney General's office from further contesting their liability. Tom Nesbitt, the attorney for Brickman and Maxwell, said in a statement that Paxton 'admitted' to breaking the law to avoid being questioned under oath. "It should shock all Texans that their chief law enforcement officer, Ken Paxton, admitted to violating the law, but that is exactly what happened in this case,' Nesbitt said in the statement. In a statement to the Tribune from his office, Paxton called the ruling 'a ridiculous judgment that is not based on the facts or the law' and pointed blame at former Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, who led the Texas House effort to impeach him in 2023. 'We will appeal this bogus ruling as we continue to clean up Dade Phelan's mess," Paxton said in the statement. The judgment also ordered that the plaintiffs are entitled to additional attorney's fees if they successfully defend or prosecute appeals, including up to $20,000 per plaintiff for various stages of review at the Supreme Court of Texas. Late Friday, Brickman criticized Paxton's intent to appeal the judgment in a post on X, calling the attorney general ' lawless and shameless' and claiming the judgment came because Paxton was avoiding a deposition. 'Paxton now wants to appeal? He literally already admitted he broke the law to @SupremeCourt_TX and the Travis County District Court — all to stop his own deposition,' Brickman wrote. The case was sparked when eight former aides, including the four plaintiffs, reported Paxton to federal authorities in September 2020 over his relations with Nate Paul, a friend and Austin real estate investor. The whistleblowers accused Paxton of abusing his office to do favors for Paul, including by hiring an outside lawyer to investigate claims made by Paul and providing him confidential law enforcement documents. In the days and weeks after the whistleblowers met with federal agents — a development they reported to Paxton — the attorney general fired them. Four of them sued Paxton in November 2020, alleging their dismissals were illegal under state law. Paxton disagreed but offered to settle the suit and pay the whistleblowers $3.3 million. But when Paxton asked the Texas House for the money in 2023, lawmakers wanted him to publicly answer questions about why Texas taxpayers should foot the bill. The House's ethics committee began investigating Paxton, and in May that year, the chamber impeached him on corruption and bribery charges based heavily on the whistleblowers' testimony. House investigators claimed that, in return for favors from Paxton, Paul paid for renovations at an Austin home owned by Paxton and his wife and also employed a woman with whom Paxton was having an extramarital affair. After a two-week, high-profile trial, the Texas Senate acquitted Paxton of 16 charges and dismissed the remaining four. That trial cost the state roughly $5.1 million, according to a State Auditor's Office report released in March that was requested by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Months later, in the still-pending whistleblower case in state court, Paxton said he would no longer contest the facts of the case — despite the fact that the allegations by the whistleblowers were similar to the ones his lawyers had vigorously disputed during the impeachment trial. In November 2024, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that Paxton and three of his top deputies did not have to sit for depositions under oath, because Paxton's agreement not to contest the lawsuit made the sworn testimony unnecessary. Paxton also dodged a federal lawsuit, the Associated Press reported Thursday, when the Department of Justice declined to prosecute him in the final days of former President Joe Biden's administration. Still, Paxton levied culpability on Biden in his statement to the Tribune on Friday night, claiming the House's impeachment efforts were 'in collusion with Joe Biden's corrupt DOJ.' Tickets are on sale now for the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas' breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Get tickets before May 1 and save big! TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Dan Patrick blasts 'wasted taxpayer funds' for Ken Paxton impeachment. Here's the cost.
A special report by the Texas State Auditor's Office revealed that the state spent more than $5.1 million for the 2023 impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton — and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the chamber that acquitted the top lawyer, is not pleased with the cost of what he called "an ill-fated political gambit." The report enumerates the costs of the Texas House's investigation and Senate's impeachment trial of the attorney general, who was accused of taking bribes and misusing his office. The House overwhelmingly voted to impeach Paxton on 20 counts, and the Senate, largely along party lines, acquitted him of all charges. According to the audit, the House spent more than $4.4 million, most of which went to "contracted professional services," or outside attorneys and investigators. By comparison, the Senate spent about $435,000 to administer the trial. The majority, $325,000, went to outside professional services, including the required cost to print the record of the trial in the Senate Journal. The attorney general's office spent close to $230,000, while the Legislative Reference Library and the Texas Legislative Council expended about $8,500 combined. More: Texas legislative detente? Here's why Dan Patrick, Dustin Burrows say they'll work together Patrick, who served as the trial's presiding officer and has often criticized the House's decision to impeach Paxton, chided former House Speaker Dade Phelan over the cost of the proceedings, arguing that the 2023 leader of the lower chamber concealed records after the lieutenant governor called for the post-impeachment audit. "As I said from the very beginning, taxpayers have a right to know how much of their tax dollars were spent on former Speaker Dade Phelan's failed political gambit," Patrick said in a statement Friday. "Former Speaker Phelan left the speakership withholding the House's impeachment records, despite repeated widespread calls for him to release the records in the name of transparency." The failed ouster of the attorney general ultimately contributed significantly to Patrick's and Paxton's successful campaign to push Phelan, R-Beaumont, out of the speakership this legislative session. Though Patrick's and Phelan's relationship was turbulent, the lieutenant governor has maintained warmer relations with Phelan's ally-turned-successor Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock. Patrick has publicly thanked the new House speaker for his "commitment to transparency." "When I asked new Speaker Burrows to release the House's impeachment expenditures, he gave me two boxes of documents almost immediately, which I promptly handed over to the state auditor," Patrick said. "Now that taxpayers have the facts about how former Speaker Dade Phelan frivolously wasted taxpayer funds for an ill-fated political gambit, we can put this shameful epoch of our state's history behind us." This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick blasts cost of Ken Paxton impeachment after audit
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Paxton impeachment cost state $5.1 million, auditor report finds
The impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton cost the state about $5.1 million in taxpayer funds, largely to pay for lawyers hired by House leaders to prosecute Paxton in a Senate trial that ended in his acquittal, according to a report released Friday by the State Auditor's Office. The total is roughly $900,000 higher than what the Tribune previously reported, based on records from the House's impeachment case, which did not include a full tally of the chamber's outside legal costs. The House, which impeached Paxton over allegations that he accepted bribes and abused the authority of his office, accounted for nearly 87% of the state's overall tab. Of the more than $4.4 million spent by the lower chamber, more than $4 million went to 'contracted professional services,' which the auditor's report described as 'costs for attorneys, investigators, and other related costs.' House records released in late 2023 showed that invoices topped $3.5 million for the two renowned Houston attorneys who led the case against Paxton, Rusty Hardin and Dick DeGuerin. Additionally, the auditor's office found that the Texas Senate spent $435,000 on costs that included lawmakers' per diem payments, travel and producing the journal documenting the trial. The Attorney General's Office spent an additional $230,000, while two other agencies — the Texas Legislative Reference Library and the Texas Legislative Council — combined to spend roughly $8,500. The auditor's report came at the request of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has spent more than a year pressuring the House to reveal its impeachment expenses. Patrick, a Republican who oversees the Senate and presided over Paxton's trial, previously alleged that the House 'spent like drunken sailors on shore leave' on the case. Paxton's impeachment created enormous strife between Patrick and former Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, who supported the impeachment effort. Earlier this month, Patrick wrote on social media that Phelan's successor, Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, handed over 'detailed expenditures' that Patrick then turned over to the State Auditor's Office. In a statement Friday, Patrick thanked Burrows for 'his commitment to transparency' and slammed Phelan, saying the report showed he 'frivolously wasted taxpayer funds for an ill-fated political gambit.' We can't wait to welcome you to the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas' breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Step inside the conversations shaping the future of education, the economy, health care, energy, technology, public safety, culture, the arts and so much more. Hear from our CEO, Sonal Shah, on TribFest 2025. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
