Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Controversial Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is looking to put at least one of the legal issues he’s facing behind him. According to a mediated agreement filed with the Texas Supreme Court, Paxton has agreed to a settlement with former aides who filed a whistleblower lawsuit.
This legal skirmish began in 2020 when a group of aides accused Paxton of taking bribes from a campaign donor and advancing the donor’s business interests. This prompted an FBI investigation, and no charges have been filed in the matter. However, later that year, the aides filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging they’d been fired in retaliation.
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Now, according to a statement by Paxton, he’s looking forward to getting these allegations behind him:
“I have chosen this path to save taxpayer dollars and ensure my third term as Attorney General is unburdened by unnecessary distractions,” Paxton said in a statement. “This settlement achieves these goals.”
As reported by Bloomberg Law, the settlement will include a $3.3 million payout — funded by taxpayers — and an apology from Paxton for lashing out at the whistleblowers:
Attorneys for all parties asked the Texas Supreme Court to pause consideration of the case while the agreement is finalized, according to the document filed Friday.
The final agreement will include a statement from Paxton saying that he “accepts that plaintiffs acted in a manner that they thought was right and apologizes for referring to them as ‘rogue employees.’” He also agreed to delete the news release from his website that used the ‘rogue’ label.
The settlement is contingent on approval of the funding, which would come from state coffers.
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Paxton still faces legal troubles in unrelated matters, specifically the indictment for two counts of securities fraud and one count of failing to register as a securities adviser.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].