Editorials and other Opinion content offer perspectives on issues important to our community and are independent from the work of our newsroom reporters.
During Attorney General Ken Paxton’s frequent appearances on my radio show last year, we had to take time out from the agenda he envisioned for his third term to discuss the various clouds that many doubters thought would derail him — his indictment on felony charges of securities fraud and allegations of various abuses by four of his former top deputies.
While the allegations in their attempted whistleblower lawsuit attracted an FBI investigation, no charges have been filed. Now, both sides have informed the Texas Supreme Court that they intend to settle, with the accusers receiving an apology from Paxton and more than $3 million.
With re-election by a comfortable margin behind him, I asked Paxton on Wednesday how the settlement came about. He had told me on several occasions that the attorneys who resigned from his office were embittered political opponents, seeking to damage him with concocted allegations. So, why settle?
“We have to make calculations about how much we’re going to spend. We were in Travis County, very liberal judges in Travis County, who may not be friendly to anything we do, and so we have to make calculations on what that’s going to cost.”
So, fighting the charges would have cost more than $3.3 million?
“With the court we were in, there would have been very lenient discovery, and a lot of process...
Times of Malta's editorial team has demanded that alleged money-launderer Chris Spiteri remove false claims posted on Facebook against journalist Jacob Borg. An alert has also been filed with the ...