Four ex-employees of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have asked the Texas Supreme Court’s permission to move forward with a wrongful termination suit against their former boss because they still haven’t received their settlement money.
Their renewed motion to the state's highest civil court comes a little more than a week after the Texas Senate acquitted Paxton of all impeachment charges — most of them dealing with accusations made by the former deputies.
James Blake Brickman, J. Mark Penley, David Maxwell and Ryan Vassar are part of a group of whistleblowers who, in 2020, reported Paxton to the FBI. They accused the embattled Republican of engaging in bribery while using his office to shield a political donor from a federal investigation.
“The political trial is over, and it’s time for the case to return to a real court,” Brickman told reporters at a news conference Monday.
The four men were fired shortly after making the report, and they filed a lawsuit in 2020 under the Texas Whistleblower Act.
Paxton and the fired workers reached a settlement agreement in February. It included $3.3 million for all four men, and a sentence on the document where Paxton had to apologize for referring to whistleblowers as "rogue employees."
But the settlement agreement was contingent on the Texas Legislature approving the funds – something that has not happened. The Republican-led House and Senate chambers adjourned the regular session in May without appropriating the money.
Now, the...
Former Democratic Party lawmaker An Min-suk was elected as the progressive camp’s candidate for the June Gyeonggi Province superintendent of education election. Candidate An said, “I will become a...