Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is facing either a major corruption scandal or a misunderstanding of epic proportions, legal experts said Sunday.
Seven high-ranking officials in the Texas Attorney General’s office – nearly all of them longtime supporters and close confidants of Paxton and one of them is a former career federal prosecutor – claim in a letter dated Thursday and made public this weekend that Paxton misused his political position as one of the state’s top office holders and may have violated state and federal criminal laws.
The new allegations warrant immediate investigations by state and federal authorities, according to a handful of former prosecutors, who also say the new charges could have a significant impact on the securities fraud charges that the state attorney general has been battling since soon after he took office.
Efforts by The Texas Lawbook to obtain a comment from Paxton or his office have been unsuccessful. Paxton’s office did provide a statement to another media outlet seeming to claim that he is actually investigating his accusers.
More than a half-dozen former prosecutors and white-collar criminal law experts told The Texas Lawbook on Sunday that Paxton’s public response accusing the senior leaders in his own which he appointed of committing crimes is the equivalent to hitting “the nuclear button.”
“It is unprecedented to have this happen to a sitting attorney general,” former federal prosecutor Tom Melsheimer, now a partner at Winston & Strawn, told The Texas Lawbook Sunday.
“We are looking at either a major scandal or a crazy misunderstanding or something in between,” Melsheimer said. “These are not political enemies from a past administration. These are his hand-picked top assistants.”
In the letter, the seven senior lawyers in the Texas Attorney General’s office state that they have “a good faith belief that the attorney general is violating federal and/or state law, including prohibitions related to improper influence, abuse of office, bribery, and other potential offenses.”
The letter’s signatories are First Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Mateer, Deputy First Assistant Ryan Bangert, Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice J. Mark Penley, Deputy Attorney General for Civil Litigation Darren McCarty, Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel Ryan Vassar, Deputy Attorney General for Administration Lacey Mase and Deputy Attorney for Policy and Strategic Initiatives James Brickman.
“Each signatory below has knowledge of facts relevant to these potential offenses and has provided statements concerning those facts to the appropriate law enforcement authority,” the letter states.
Richard Roper, a former federal prosecutor and now a partner at Thompson & Knight, said the allegations are from such high-ranking and well-respected officials that they will almost certainly have to be investigated by the Travis County District Attorney and the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas.
“This is crazy – I have never seen anything like this before,” said Roper, who has practiced criminal law since 1982. “The fact that the whole management team is lined up on this makes you think that there has to be substance behind this. But we just don’t know yet.”
The only public response from Paxton or the Texas Attorney General’s office was a written statement provided to the Austin American Statesman.
“The complaint filed against Attorney General Paxton was done to impede an ongoing investigation into criminal wrongdoing by public officials including employees of this office. Making false claims is a very serious matter and we plan to investigate this to the fullest extent of the law,” the statement read.
Mark Torian, a partner at the Bradley law firm in Dallas, said the fact that Paxton’s defense accusing his own team leaders who he appointed of criminal activity is astonishing.
“Ken Paxton’s response is that he hit the nuclear button,” Torian said. “This is an extraordinary event when the Texas Attorney General turns on his own staff who turned on him.”
“The letter from the seven and Ken Paxton’s response forces the Texas governor and the state legislature to respond very quickly – before the election,” Torian said. “This cannot go unaddressed through the election.”
Other lawyers who are close to Paxton and have supported him said Sunday that they were “blindsided and stunned” by the new allegations.
“This is not good – not good at all,” said a close Paxton confidant, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Legal experts said the fact that it is Paxton’s closest allies in his own office making the allegations means they must be taken seriously.
“Holy cow! Just unbelievable,” Bob Hinton, a former prosecutor and now Dallas criminal defense attorney said Sunday. “These are seven lawyers saying they know something specific and that they don’t want to go down with Paxton.
“Ken Paxton has been Mr. Teflon, but the Teflon is wearing very thin,” Hinton said.