AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) said Thursday that it has filed to end litigation with the four former employees who sued AG Ken Paxton in 2020, arguing he improperly fired them after they reported him to the FBI.
The OAG said it has decided that the "bad-faith efforts" to prolong legal proceedings are an "unjustifiable waste of taxpayer resources and an intolerable distraction that risks compromising critical state business."
Just last week, the Texas Court of Appeals ordered that Paxton must sit for deposition in the whistleblower lawsuit, and an attorney for the whistleblowers says the lawsuit isn't over. On Friday, a Travis County judge doubled down and ordered Paxton and his aides to appear for depositions again, this time providing specific dates.
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Tom Nesbitt, an attorney for the plaintiffs called the move by the OAG's office "another desperate stunt by Ken Paxton to prevent the truth from coming out."
"Ken Paxton has never answered questions about his illegal and corrupt conduct. He is clearly terrified of doing so - even if it means taking a different position now about him breaking the law than he did at his impeachment trial," Nesbitt said. "The Texas Supreme Court ruled just last week that there is no settlement and that Paxton must be deposed. The people of Texas deserve the truth and this lawsuit will provide it."
Paxton released the following statement regarding the OAG's decision:
“The OAG chose to settle this case last year, with the full participation of the plaintiffs and their attorneys. But the plaintiffs backed out of that settlement after I was fully acquitted. Instead of moving on with terms mutually agreeable to both sides, these rogue former employees disavowed their own settlement and escalated their crusade against me. It has become increasingly clear their objective is not to resolve an employment lawsuit but to sabotage my leadership and this agency, ultimately aiming to undermine Texas as the nation’s leader against the federal government’s unlawful policies. Further, whether a verdict will be funded in whole, in part, or not at all would be determined entirely by the Legislature, which has expressed its own negative opinion about the strength of the plaintiffs’ case by explicitly refusing to use taxpayer dollars to fund the plaintiffs’ disproven claims.
For these reasons, today, my office acted to end this wasteful litigation by filing an amended answer that—consistent with the previous decision to settle this case—will enable the trial court to enter a final judgment without any further litigation. By taking this action, the OAG has put an end to the plaintiffs’ long-running political stunt and re-committed the entirety of agency expertise and resources to our urgent legal initiatives, including our era-defining immigration lawsuits against the Biden Administration. At a time when President Biden is attempting to confiscate Texas state parks and destroy border barriers to ensure a continuous flow of illegal immigration—issues the OAG is currently litigating—I will not allow our focus to waver from defending the rights of the people of Texas and leading the nation’s many fights against unconstitutional federal overreach. Texas’s sovereignty and America’s future are at risk. The stakes have never been higher. I will not allow my office to be distracted by these disgruntled former employees and their self-serving sideshow.
I was re-elected to a third term as Texas Attorney General to uphold law and order and aggressively defend Texans’ rights against the Biden Administration’s increasingly troubling and consequential violations of the United States Constitution. I will not allow these former employees to deter me from doing the job that voters elected me to do. For these reasons, we have moved to end this litigation and eliminate the distractions associated with it.”
Last fall, Paxton was acquitted on 16 impeachment articles, spurred by the whistleblowers' accusations. The allegations against him ranged from bribery to disregard of duty and misuse of power.