Paul Davis, a corporate in-house lawyer and head of human resources at Westlake-based Goosehead Insurance, posted a video on Instagram Wednesday that appears to show himself inside the Capitol building as part of the Trump protest that turned into a riot saying he was tear gassed and he was there to demand a review of ballots for the 2020 presidential election.
On Thursday, Goosehead published an 11-word statement on the Twitter: “Paul Davis, associate general counsel, is no longer employed by Goosehead.”
Davis confirmed Thursday afternoon in an all caps message on Parler that he was fired.
“I’M A LAWYER WHO GOT FIRED TODAY FOR EXERCISING MY FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS AT THE US CAPITOL! PLEASE ECHO TO TRUSTED NEWS OUTLETS!”
Davis, who describes himself on Instagram as a “worship leader, guitarist, attorney, gym rat, Texan and free spirit,” posted multiple videos and messages the past week claiming that those involved in the presidential election count committed fraud and are guilty of treason.
In a social media post Thursday, Davis said, “For those of you claiming I was trying to ‘storm the Capitol,’ it’s obvious from my entire story that I was peacefully demonstrating. I was not trying to break in. Was just talking to the police officers and praying over them.”
The 45-second selfie video from Wednesday shows Davis wearing a red MAGA hat with riot police about 15 feet behind him.
“We just got tear gassed. That was not fun,” he said. “All we are doing is demanding that our public officials audit the vote, audit the Dominion machines, audit the ballots. There’s a way to do it. We can solve this in two days.”
“If this was a legitimate election, then let us inspect it,” Davis said on the video. “If Biden won, then let’s all go on with our lives. I don’t think that happened. The fact that they will not let us inspect any ballots or the machines, should tell you something. We are all trying to get into the Capitol to stop this. They are tear gassing us and it is not acceptable. People are not going to stand for this.”
About 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Davis made his Instagram posts private. On his Parler account, he describes himself as a “proud deplorable Texas lawyer who loves Jesus.”
Efforts by The Texas Lawbook to contact Davis and Goosehead officials have been unsuccessful.