You should maybe be sitting down for this.
Best mugshot ever
The whistleblowers who sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after he fired them for accusing him of bribery and abuse of office are speaking out against him publicly for the first time since filing their lawsuit, in response to what they say are Paxton’s “numerous false and misleading public statements” on the campaign trail.
The four whistleblowers – former deputy attorneys general James Blake Brickman, Mark Penley, and Ryan Vassar, as well as the office’s former director of law enforcement David Maxwell – said they previously intended to stay silent about their case while it played out in the judicial system.
“Our preference was to remain silent while the wheels of justice turned, and our civil case progressed in the courts,” they said in a joint statement Monday. “However, in recent weeks, Paxton has made numerous false and misleading public statements that we feel obligated to correct.”
The whistleblowers also said they had remained quiet to respect the “ongoing FBI investigation,” indicating that a federal criminal probe into Paxton continues. The FBI has declined to comment on the matter in the past.
“The most basic qualifications of an attorney general are respect for truth and respect for the law. Ken Paxton has neither,” the whistleblowers said in their statement. “The day will come when Ken Paxton must testify under oath about his and his agency’s actions. Until then, we call on Ken Paxton to start telling the truth to the people of Texas.”
[…]
Many of what the whistleblowers call Paxton’s “misleading public statements” came during a Jan. 31 interview with conservative radio host Mark Davis about the attorney general’s race. In the interview, Paxton claimed the whistleblowers “didn’t come to him” and “didn’t explain” the issues they had with the behavior that led to their complaints. In a separate interview with conservative outlet Texas Scorecard this month, Paxton claimed the FBI had “infiltrated” his office to investigate him before the whistleblowers made their complaint.
But the whistleblowers said in their statement they approached Paxton multiple times about their concerns with his push to get involved in Paul’s affairs before reporting him to the FBI. Their whistleblower lawsuit details specific dates when the whistleblowers individually and as a group warned Paxton that his actions in legal matters related to Paul were unlawful.
They said they first reported their concerns to the FBI on Sept. 30, 2020 after they could not convince Paxton to follow the law.
“We had no previous contact with the FBI before that date and believe this was the first time the FBI became involved with the investigation of Paxton and his office,” they wrote in their statement released Monday.
The whistleblowers also took issue with Paxton’s comment on Davis’ show that “no one has ever disputed” an unsigned 374-page report generated by his office in August that exonerated him of the whistleblower’s allegations.
“This is false. Paxton’s self-exonerating report is directly disputed by the detailed allegations in the whistleblower lawsuit,” the statement read. “Unsurprisingly, Paxton’s report selectively ignored some of the most troubling allegations we reported to the FBI, like Paxton providing blatant political favors to a campaign donor – the same campaign donor who has admitted in sworn testimony to hiring a woman at Paxton’s behest, a woman with whom media reports reveal Paxton had an extramarital affair.”
The whistleblowers also blasted Paxton for accusing them of committing crimes in the Davis interview, calling his accusations “ridiculous.”
“We confronted Ken Paxton about his and his agency’s corrupt and criminal conduct, and, when he would not abide by the law, we reported him to the FBI,” they said in their statement. “Paxton is under criminal investigation, not the whistleblowers.”
Paxton also told Texas Scorecard that he still does not know the specific allegations against him. The whistleblowers said the allegations against him are clearly spelled out in their lawsuit and include: bribery, tampering with government records, obstruction of justice, harassment and abuse of office.
See here for the latest installation of the Paxton whistleblower lawsuit saga, in which he tries to get the Supreme Court to wipe the slate clean, and here and here for the incredible self-exoneration report. If only the world worked this way for all of us! (“I conducted a thorough investigation into the allegations against me, honey, and I can confirm that I did in fact take the garbage out last night.”) I realize that I am a bitter, shriveled husk of a man, but nothing on this earth will give me more joy right now than seeing the FBI perp-walk Paxton out of his office. We all do what we need to do to get through the day. The Chron has more.
Well, this is helpful information for me when I go into the GOP primary voting booth.
Based on this information I now know that Paxton exemplifies being the most Republican of character and should be the GOP’s nominee for our state’s top law enforcement officer.
COMMON MISCONCEPTION, MOST RECENTLY FREDERICK
In Texas, the attorney general is *not* the state’s chief law *enforcement* officer.
The State’s prosecutors are the DAs and County Attorneys, who are independently elected (at the local level) and they are *not* under Paxton’s control. Indeed, they are not even part of the executive branch. See, e.g., Saldano v. State, 70 S.W.3d 873 (2002)(discussing history of decentralized system of criminal prosecution in Texas) https://scholar.google.com/scholar?scidkt=9903067636168387883&as_sdt=2&hl=en
That doesn’t mean the AG doesn’t get to enforce “the law” broadly speaking, but it’s for the most part not criminal law enforcement, but civil, including collection of child support and delinquent state taxes and other debts owed to the state, and DTPA suits in the name of the State against wayward businesses by the Consumer Protection Division. The OAG also administers the open records law, now called Public Information Act (PIA).
Based on the state constitutional job description for the AG, a better short-hand description is “the state’s chief lawyer”. Many “other duties” are were assigned by the legislature, including statutory authority bring civil enforcement actions.
THE TEXAS CONSTITUTION – ARTICLE 4. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT
Sec. 22. ATTORNEY GENERAL. The Attorney General shall represent the State in all suits and pleas in the Supreme Court of the State in which the State may be a party, and shall especially inquire into the charter rights of all private corporations, and from time to time, in the name of the State, take such action in the courts as may be proper and necessary to prevent any private corporation from exercising any power or demanding or collecting any species of taxes, tolls, freight or wharfage not authorized by law. He shall, whenever sufficient cause exists, seek a judicial forfeiture of such charters, unless otherwise expressly directed by law, and give legal advice in writing to the Governor and other executive officers, when requested by them, and perform such other duties as may be required by law.
LYING LIARS AND THE LIES THEY TELL
Kibitzer,
Thanks for confirming that Paxon is lying about being the state’s top law enforcement officer.
Review this link from the Texas Attorney General’s official website and note the first sentence of second paragraph. https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/about-office
Would you do us a favor and personally call up indicted felon Paxton and tell him to stop lying?