AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will not contest allegations in a lawsuit filed against him by four former employees who reported him to the FBI.
The whistleblowers, Blake Brickman, Ryan Vassar, Mark Penley and David Maxwell, claimed that Paxton abused the power of his office to help himself and political donor Nate Paul, and that they were unjustly terminated for reporting the attorney general to the FBI.
The claims prompted the impeachment trial against Paxton last September.
A Senate jury acquitted Paxton on all articles of impeachment.
In a court filing, the Office of the Attorney General said it could "obtain a verdict in this case in its favor," but decided to settle the lawsuit to "stop the self-aggrandizing political weaponization of our State’s courts by rogue employees who have what seems to be a monomaniacal goal to undermine the will of the voters."
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"Doing so precludes further unwarranted expense to the people of the State of Texas as well as the disruption to the State’s principal law enforcement arm—the time and personnel of which are more appropriately dedicated to the business of the State of Texas and not the personal, political agenda of four rogue, former employees," reads the filing on behalf of the OAG.
The filing also said that Paxton was "fully vindicated" after his acquittal in the Senate and that not disputing the lawsuit should "be construed...
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