With no settlement payment, whistleblowers want TX attorney general lawsuit to continue
Former employees who filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Attorney General Ken Paxton are asking the Texas Supreme Court to renew the case.
After former employees brought their concerns of misconduct and possible illegal activity to the FBI in late 2020, four of the whistleblowers sued the attorney general’s office for retaliation. A tentative settlement agreement was reached for $3.3 million in taxpayer dollars, subject to legislative approval, but it has not been paid.
In a filing Monday, the whistleblowers said they don’t expect the settlement to move forward, and asked the court to reactivate the case, which is pending in the state’s highest appellate court.
They’re asking the case return to a lower court for trial.
“It’s possible they could still fund the settlement, but we’ve been given zero indication that that’s likely to happen, and we’re ready to go back to our trial court and get a judgment that holds Ken Paxton to justice,” said Blake Brickman, one of the whistleblowers who sued the office.
The lawsuit was central to Paxton’s impeachment and subsequent acquittal.
Paxton was accused of misusing his office to benefit Austin real estate developer and political donor Nate Paul. Impeachment managers and their attorneys argued Paxton gave Paul special legal attention and help while accepting home renovations and a job for a woman with whom he was having an affair. Paxton denied wrongdoing.
The House Committee on General Investigating began its probe into the embattled attorney general after the multi-million settlement was reached.
“If the Supreme Court sends our case back to district court, we expect several things to be different from the political trial we just witnessed,” said Brickman.
He continued that the judge would not have gotten a multi-million donation from Paxton supporters ahead of the trial and the jurors wouldn’t “have their careers overtly threatened.” They’d also get to see evidence the impeachment managers were barred from presenting in the trial, Brickman said.
Brickman confirmed the FBI investigation into Paxton is ongoing, but declined to comment further. Paxton is separately indicted in a state securities fraud case and has not gone to trial.
Paxton has cast the impeachment proceedings as politically motivated.
Brickman pushed back Monday.
“These allegations come from the top eight people in Ken Paxton’s office,” Brickman said. “So for him to claim this is some political witch hunt, when the investigation started when Donald Trump was president and was made by the three of us and five of our other colleagues is absolutely ludicrous.”
The office declined an interview request and said they’d respond in court filings.
“The Office of the Attorney General will respond to the so-called whistleblower plaintiffs’ comments in a written response to be filed with the Texas Supreme Court—consistent with that Court’s procedures—as opposed to staging a press event in the state Capitol,” Communications Director Paige Willey said in an email.
In a Friday statement, Paxton celebrated being reinstated as attorney general. The office’s work was disrupted by “four months of wasteful and destructive political theater,” Paxton said.
“It is my great honor to be back to work this week,” he said in the statement. “The Office of the Attorney General has redoubled our focus on countless issues facing the state, including opposing illegal immigration, defending election integrity, holding predatory corporations to account, and fighting for the rule of law against the Biden Administration’s executive overreach.”
