News - AP-National
A district court judge has ruled in favor of four whistleblowers who said that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton retaliated against them for reporting bribery allegations, awarding his employees more than $6 million combined in damages.
Updated:
26 mins ago
1/2
By NADIA LATHAN
Associated Press
/Report for America
A district court judge has awarded more than $6 million combined to four whistleblowers in their lawsuit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who were fired shortly after they reported him to the FBI.
“By a preponderance of the evidence,” Travis County Judge Catherine Mauzy says in her judgment, the plaintiffs proved liability, damages and attorney's fees in their complaint against the attorney general's office.
“Because the Office of the Attorney General violated the Texas Whistleblower Act by firing and otherwise retaliating against the plaintiff for in good faith reporting violations of law by Ken Paxton and OAG, the court hereby renders judgment for plaintiffs," Mauzy states.
The court found that the four Paxton aides were fired in retaliation for reporting allegations that he was using his office to accept bribes from an Austin real estate developer who employed a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair. Paxton has denied accepting bribes or misusing his office to help Nate Paul, the real estate developer.
The judgment also stated that the employees made their reports to law enforcement “in good faith” and that Paxton's...
There are a slew of legal challenges to Trump’s war on immigrants: there are people illegally sent to Nayib Bukele’s concentration camp, most notably Kilmar Abrego Garcia (whom Chris Van Hollen man...