Please take several deep breaths before and as you read this.
Still a crook any way you look
The Justice Department quietly decided in the final weeks of the Biden administration not to prosecute Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, effectively ending the corruption investigation that cast a long shadow over the political career of a close ally of President Donald Trump, The Associated Press has learned.
The decision not to bring charges — which has never been publicly reported — resolved the high-stakes federal probe before Trump’s new Justice Department leadership could even take action on an investigation sparked by allegations from Paxton’s inner circle that the Texas Republican abused his office to aid a political donor.
The move came almost two years after the Justice Department’s public integrity section in Washington took over the investigation, removing the case from the hands of federal investigators in Texas who had believed there was sufficient evidence for an indictment.
Two people familiar with the matter, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, confirmed the department’s decision to decline to prosecute. Though the date of the decision was not immediately clear, it was made in the final weeks of the President Joe Biden’s presidency, one of the people said.
Politically appointed Justice Department leadership was not involved in the decision, which was recommended by a senior career official who had concerns about prosecutors’ ability to secure a conviction, according to another person briefed on the matter. Political appointees are not typically involved in public integrity section matters to avoid the appearance of political interference.
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The allegations against Paxton were stunning in part because of who made them.
Eight of his closest aides reported him to the FBI in 2020, accusing him of bribery and abusing his office to help one of his friends and campaign contributors, Nate Paul, who also employed a woman with whom Paxton acknowledged having had an extramarital affair. The same allegations led to Paxton’s impeachment on articles of bribery and abuse of public trust, but he was acquitted by the Republican-led Texas Senate, where his wife is a senator but did not cast a vote during the trial.
Paul pleaded guilty in January to a federal charge after he was accused of making false statements to banks to obtain more than $170 million in loans.
“After the November election, the DOJ accepted a guilty plea from Nate Paul and is apparently letting Ken Paxton escape justice,” TJ Turner and Tom Nesbitt, attorneys for two of the whistleblowers, said in a statement to the AP. “DOJ clearly let political cowardice impact its decision. The whistleblowers — all strong conservatives — did the right thing and continue to stand by their allegations of Paxton’s criminal conduct.”
The Justice Department’s public integrity section, which oversees public corruption cases, took over the Paxton investigation in 2023. The Justice Department has never publicly explained its decision to recuse the federal prosecutors in west Texas who had been leading the investigation. The move was pushed for by Paxton’s attorneys.
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Grand jury records from 2021 obtained by The Texas Newsroom last year showed that federal authorities were investigating Paxton for several potential crimes, including bribery and witness retaliation. It’s unclear whether the scope or focus of the investigation changed when the public integrity section in Washington took it over.
During Paxton’s impeachment trial, former advisers testified that he pressured them to help the campaign donor, Paul, who was under FBI investigation. The testimony included arguments over who paid for home renovations, whether Paxton used burner phones and how his alleged extramarital affair became a strain on the office. Paxton decried the impeachment effort as a “politically motivated sham.”
I expected this outcome, but I figured it would be the Trump goons who did it. I can think of two valid reasons for it to have been done before they took over. One is that they gave the case one last final review and concluded that indeed they didn’t have sufficient evidence to get a conviction. I don’t really believe that, but it’s possible. Perhaps it would have been better to leave that decision up to the incoming administration, more as a matter of courtesy than anything else, but I’ve not been in that position before so I don’t know what the norms are. Not that norms matter much anymore anyway, but you get the point.
The other possibility I can think of is that by ending the case then, the files could be preserved so that the case could be revived in four years’ time, assuming no statute of limitations issues. I’m not sure I believe that either, and I’m not even sure it makes sense, but it’s what I came up with. Any other reason strikes me as complying in advance, and I’d rather not dwell on that.
The takeover of the case by the feds, when the local prosecutors seemed to be gearing up to move forward, is still the biggest and most frustrating puzzle of the whole situation. I’ll decline to speculate about that because it doesn’t serve a purpose, but boy would I love to hear from someone on the inside about what really went down. The email address is kuff at offthekuff.com if you’ve got some info to share, full anonymity granted.
Beyond that, I don’t know what ancient curse we’re all under that allows this asshole to keep on doing what he does, but here we are. I join with all decent people in hoping that someday that curse is broken. Reform Austin has more.