AG says he won’t quit his position
Roy, whoworked for Paxton, calls for exit
Days after seven of Attorney General Ken Paxton’s top aides accused him of bribery and corruption, the state’s top law enforcementofficer sayshewill not resign.
“Despite the effort by rogue employees and their false allegations, I will continue to seek justice in Texas,” Paxton said.
His comments came after news broke over the weekend that the senior staff members reported Paxtontolawenforcementauthorities, accusing him of using his office to benefit one of his campaign donors, Nate Paul, an Austin real estate investor. Paul hadgivenPaxtona$25,000donation for his 2018 re-election campaign.
Paxton, who has been out of jail on bail on felony securities fraud charges during virtually all of his tenure leading the attorney general’s office, shrugged off the new allegations and fired back.
He said the whistleblowers are trying to “impede an ongoing investigation into criminal wrongdoing by public officials including employees of this office.” He didn’t substantiate those claims or an
swer questions about them.
Court records related to the legal clash around Paul’s case have been sealed while the matter is under investigation.
Even as requests for Paxton’s resignation grew louder Monday — his former chief deputy, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, was the first prominent Texas Republican to call publicly for his ouster — it was seemingly business as usual for Paxton.
He announced that civil litigator and criminal defense attorney Brent Webster will replace first assistant attorney general Jeff Mateer, who resigned Friday after signing thewhistleblower letter. Webster has been a criminal prosecutor in Texas for10 years andpreviously served as the first assistant district attorney in Williamson County.
Texas political analyst Mark Jones of Rice University, who has studied the felony case that has been hanging over Paxton for five years now, said these allegations are different.
“This isn’t an accusation that comes completely out of left field regarding a public servant who has an unblemished track record,” Jones said. “This is someone, from when he arrived in the state House, moved to the state Senate, moved to the office of the attorney general, has had a trail of questionable ethical behavior.”
Jones added: “We’re talking about the chief law enforcement official in the second-largest state in the country.”
Most state Republicans, watching as Paxton has weathered such allegations in the past, have backedhim or stayed silent over the years. This time likely will be different, Jones said.
Hearst Newspapers reported Sunday that Houston lawyer Brandon Cammack, whomPaxton hired as a special prosecutor, issued grand jury subpoenas last week targeting “adversaries” of Paul, according to a senior attorney general’s office official. There were 37 subpoenas that targeted actions of federal authorities in an August 2019 raid of Paul’s home and offices, the Austin American-Statesman reported Monday.
One of the signatories on the letter accusing Paxton, deputy attorney general for criminal justice J. Mark Penley, filed a motion in state District Court to halt the subpoenas. The motion to quashthemwas granted Friday, records show.
Many questions remain about the nature of the alleged bribery and howCammack came to work for the office in a move that has beenopposedby half of Paxton’s executive staff.
Paxton has not responded to questions about any contract the office had with Cammack, when he was hired, howmuch he is being paid or any other details.
Hearst Newspapers has filed open records requests for records of payments to Cammack as well as any agreement the office had with him.
Roy, whose district stretches from San Antonio to Austin, said in his statement Monday that the allegations are “more than troubling on the merits,” adding that even if Paxton is innocent, he has handled the situation poorly.
“Any grace for him to resolve differences and demonstrate if the allegations are false was eliminated by his choice instead to attack the very people entrusted, by him, to lead the office — some of whom I know well and whose characters are beyond reproach,” Roy said. “The attorney general deserves his day in court, but the people of Texas deserve a fully functioning AG’s office.”
Roy’s statement was all the more significant because of his relationship to Paxton — from 2014 to 2016, Roy served as Paxton’s first assistant attorney general.
Other Republicans, including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, have not gone as far as calling for Paxton to step down, instead saying they had concerns but would wait to see the results of the law enforcement investigation into the matter. State Rep. Sarah Davis, a moderate Republican from Houston, landed somewhere in the middle, saying Sunday that Paxton needs to “quickly address these allegations or resign.”
The closest some Republicans came to speaking out against Paxton was rejecting donations to their campaigns from Paul. Patrick told the Statesman that he would give a $10,000 contribution to charity. Roy said onTwitter that he’ddonated a $2,700 contribution to charity.
If more Texas Republicans, especially those within the most conservative corner of the party, like Roy, come out against Paxton, that pressure could become weighty enough to change his mind about stepping down, Jones said.
“Since he’s a very staunch conservative with strong tea party support, it just makes it all the more difficult to say anything other than what it appears to be,” Jones said. “That is, someone with a troubled ethical and legal history crossed the line — again.”
Jones said he expects Paxton to play the process out, retaining his position as leverage in any case against him.
If Paxton were to step down, Abbott would appoint an acting attorney general, who would hold office until the Legislature reconvenes in January, as state law provides. That person then would have to be approved by a two-thirds majority of the Texas Senate. Abbott would have 10 days after the session starts to choose a nominee; if he does not, the acting attorney general would be considered his nominee.
If the Senate were to reject his nominee, Abbott would have to select someone else.
Jones said Patrick likely wouldn’t bring a nomination to the floor, however, unless he knew he had the votes. If he declined to bring it to a vote for that reason, the acting attorney general’s term would end at the close of the legislative session, and Abbott would choose a new nominee to serve until a new attorney general is elected in 2022.