AUSTIN, Texas (CN) — The Texas Attorney General's Office asked a state judge Monday to dismiss a lawsuit in which four former staffers claim they were fired because they reported to the FBI they believed Attorney General Ken Paxton had illegally used his position to benefit a campaign donor.
According to the lawsuit, Paxton retaliated after eight high-level employees reported to the FBI and Texas Rangers last autumn they believed he had committed the crimes of abuse of office, bribery, tampering with government records and impeding an official proceeding by using his position to help out his friend and campaign donor Nate Paul — an Austin-based real estate developer.
The allegations led the FBI to subpoena Paxton.
Within 50 days of their report, five of the whistleblowers were fired and the other three resigned, reportedly under pressure from Paxton.
To say the case has aired Paxton's dirty laundry would be an understatement.
He stands accused of getting his mistress a job as a construction manager for one of Paul's companies and of going to "bizarre" lengths to help Paul pursue investigations of a federal magistrate judge — who had issued search warrants authorizing the FBI to raid his home and offices in August 2019 — the FBI agents and state law enforcement officers who did the raids, and a federal prosecutor who obtained the warrants from the magistrate judge.
The whistleblowers claim Paxon had the Office of the Attorney General hire Houston attorney Brandon Cammack as an outside counsel in September and he issued numerous subpoenas over the FBI raids even though his contract was never approved.
Cammack also issued subpoenas to a federal bankruptcy judge, a charity involved in real estate projects with Paul's companies, a receiver appointed to manage some Paul-company properties and a credit union that had a lien on a Paul business property — all of whom Paul believed were conspiring to defraud him, the whistleblowers allege in their second amended complaint filed Feb. 9.
Paul contributed $25,000 to Paxton's political campaign committee in October 2018, and the political action committee of a law firm representing some of Paul's businesses chipped in another $25,000 to Paxton's campaign coffers last June, shortly after Paxton had his office intervene in litigation to help Paul, according to the whistleblowers.
They say they learned last year Paul’s companies were involved in the renovation of Paxton’s $1 million Austin home.
Despite Paxton's central role, he is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
The whistleblowers sued the Office of the Attorney General in November, claiming it violated the Texas Whistleblower Act. Two of the plaintiffs asked for a temporary injunction ordering the office to reinstate them to their former jobs.
In a dismissal motion hearing conducted remotely Monday, the Office of the Attorney General’s counsel, William Helfand, of the firm Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard and Smith, said the trial court lacks jurisdiction.
Helfand argued the Texas Whistleblower Act only applies to employees who make a good-faith report of a violation by their employing government entity or another public employee.
"The Texas Whistleblower Act does not extend its protection to reports of unlawful conduct made about a state elected official," Helfand said.
He added that the legislature, under the separation of powers established by the Texas Constitution, cannot pass legislation regarding the judicial branch or the executive branch, to which the attorney general belongs.
“Where does your argument end?” Travis County District Judge Amy Clark Meachum interjected. “Are you saying it does not apply to any other public official?”
Helfand said he didn’t know if the actions of county-level elected officials are also immune from Texas whistleblower lawsuits.