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Attorney General Ken Paxton will not have to sit for a deposition in a longstanding lawsuit filed by four former senior aides who said he improperly fired them after they reported him to the FBI, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday.
It is a victory for Paxton, who has managed to avoid testifying about allegations of corruption, bribery and abuse of office despite this civil lawsuit, an impeachment trial and a federal criminal investigation.
The whistleblowers sought to question under oath Paxton and three of his current top deputies: First Assistant Brent Webster, chief of staff Lesley French and senior adviser Michelle Smith. But the Supreme Court overturned a trial court order scheduling those depositions.
The justices said since the attorney general’s office has agreed not to contest the lawsuit, which alleges that Paxton violated the state’s Whistleblower Act, their sworn testimony is unnecessary.
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“While we agree with the former employees that OAG’s concessions do not preclude all discovery, we agree with OAG that the trial court abused its discretion in ordering the depositions of these four witnesses without considering that the only fact issue on which those witnesses are likely to provide information — OAG’s liability under the Whistleblower Act — is now uncontested,” the opinion states.
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