The defense Ken Paxton paid over $500K for 'is almost useless': report

02 July 2023

To help defend Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — whom state House Republicans voted to send to an impeachment trial in May, private law firm Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith was paid over "$500,000 in public money" to develop an "outside" report, Austin American-Statesman reports.

Per the report, the attorney general's trial, beginning September 5, "will center largely on criminal and ethical allegations the whistleblowers made against Paxton, including bribery and misuse of office."

Although a report was previously completed in February, when the AG's office reached a settlement that "called for Paxton to apologize publicly for calling them “rogue employees” and for the four aides who brought the suit to receive a combined $3.3 million," American-Statesman reports it flopped when "the House balked at resolving the matter with taxpayer money and, instead, a House investigating committee launched a review into Paxton's many legal issues."

American-Statesman reports:

Payment records obtained by the Statesman show that through mid-May the attorney general’s office had paid Lewis Brisbois $519,000 for representation in the whistleblower lawsuit. The firm was brought on at the end of 2020 when the whistleblower lawsuit was filed. The total cost for the recent whistleblower report is unknown, as invoices do not always include specific work the lawyers did.

Additionally, the news outlet notes "the revelation calls into question the report's veracity at a time when, ironically, Paxton and his supporters are challenging the legitimacy of a House impeachment vote that did not include firsthand witness testimony or a chance for Paxton or his lawyers to rebut evidence."

Furthermore, the second report "concludes the firings were legally justified and not done in retaliation for the whistleblowers' criminal complaint to the FBI," which American-Statesman notes "is the basis for two articles of impeachment against Paxton – one that says the report was a 'sham investigation' and the other that says Paxton made false or misleading statements in the report to mislead the public and public officials."

The AG's office calls the new report "comprehensive" and insists that it "unequivocally refutes incorrect testimony" from those against Paxton.

According to the America-Statesman, Mike Golden, director of advocacy at the University of Texas Law School, emphasized, "the absence of a Paxton interview is a 'significant missing piece of information," noting "In a lawsuit when an organization is accused of firing someone wrongfully, primarily the organization’s defense is to say, 'No, we fired them for this other independent, lawful reason. To not be able to verify the stated reason for firing someone with the person who made that decision makes the report almost useless."

Austin American-Statesman's full report is available at this link.

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