(CN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton cannot be deposed in a long-running whistleblower case brought by four former employees, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The ruling overturns an order from a lower court for the depositions of Paxton and three senior associates as part of a lawsuit filed in November 2020 by employees who were fired after accusing Paxton of accepting bribes.
In the wake of the claims, Paxton was overwhelmingly impeached and suspended from office by the House of Representatives in May 2023, but the suspension was lifted four months later when the Texas Senate acquitted him of all charges. Still, in January 2024 Paxton effectively conceded the case by electing not to challenge the accusations against him.
In a per curiam decision in which one judge did not participate, the state Supreme Court determined while Paxton’s concession does not preclude all discovery, “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 — the [Office of Attorney General’s] liability under the Whistleblower Act — is now uncontested.”
After the concession, the plaintiffs still sought the depositions to prove the validity of their claims to obtain a judgment. But the Supreme Court determined granting the request would not obtain new information to aid in the resolution of the dispute, while the likely benefit of the depositions would...
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