Sometimes you forget how slowly the wheels of justice can turn. And sometimes you’re reminded.
Also associates with known criminals
A real estate investor accused of bribing the Texas attorney general is facing jail time after the Texas Supreme Court denied his appeal of an order holding him in contempt for lying in court.
The state’s highest civil court narrowly denied Nate Paul’s petition in a 5-4 decision. Paul had been sentenced to 10 days in jail by a Travis County judge.
The Austin-based investor was central to the Texas House’s impeachment case against Attorney General Ken Paxton and was accused of offering him home renovations and other favors in exchange for legal help. Paxton was impeached last fall by the majority-Republican House but acquitted by the Senate.
Paul and Paxton are the targets of an FBI investigation launched in 2020 when Paxton’s aides went to local and federal authorities, claiming the third-term Republican abused his office and took bribes from Paul. A grand jury has reportedly been convened in San Antonio and called witnesses close to Paxton. Paxton has denied all wrongdoing.
Paul is also facing federal criminal prosecution for allegedly giving false statements to lenders and committing wire fraud and will face trial in November. He has pleaded not guilty.
[…]
“We are ecstatic,” said Ray Chester, a lawyer for the Roy F. & Joann Cole Mitte Foundation, an Austin-based nonprofit suing Paul for fraud in the underlying case. “We feel like justice prevailed.”
Travis County Judge Jan Soifer found that Paul had made unauthorized financial transfers despite a court order barring him from doing so; the order was meant to prevent him from moving or getting rid of assets to hide them from the court. Paul did not report the transfers and later lied about them, even when confronted with evidence of the accounts, according to a letter from the judge’s office.
See here for the previous update. As you can tell from its headline, I had thought then that Paul was already ticketed for the pokey, but he had one more appeal in him. Even now, he could petition the court to reconsider their ruling – it was 5-4 and the split was over a civil court imposing criminal contempt instead of handing it off to a prosecutor to pursue, so who knows, they might want to give it another look-see – so I might have to write another one of these posts at some undetermined date. For now I’m just going to note this for the record, wish Nate Paul a pleasant stay in the brig, and hope for the best. Oh, and if that grand jury would pick up the pace a little as well, that would be nice.