Attorney General Ken Paxton and four former top deputies who said he improperly fired them after they accused him of crimes have reached a tentative agreement to end a whistleblower lawsuit.
In October 2020, the former deputies accused Paxton of using his office for political favors for one of his friends and political donors. They claimed Paxton got involved in the legal case of his friend Nate Paul, a real estate developer, while his business was under federal investigation.
The four staffers were then fired and claimed it was in retribution for speaking up. The terms of the settlement require Paxton to apologize and pay his former staff $3.3 million.
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, who covers state politics for the Texas Newsroom, said that despite the apology, Paxton did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement.
“In his filing, his attorney said that he accepted that plaintiffs are getting the money that they thought was right and apologized for referring to them as ‘rogue employees.’ That’s the term he used to refer to the whistleblowers in a news release in 2020,” he said. “Paxton also said that he decided to settle because he wanted to serve his third term unburdened by unnecessary distractions.”
It is still unclear where the $3.3 million promised in the settlement will come from.
“Usually when a government agency or entity has to pay as part of a lawsuit or a settlement, it is the government who pays for it. So the taxpayers, you and I, pay for it,” Martínez-Beltrán...
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