Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Monday that he hired a Houston lawyer to be an independent prosecutor because “employees in my office impeded the investigation” and are now making “false allegations” against him as attorney general.
“Despite the effort by rogue employees and their false allegations, I will continue to seek justice in Texas and will not be resigning,” Paxton said in a written statement issued Monday afternoon.
Late last week, seven high-ranking officials in the Texas Attorney General’s office – nearly all of them are longtime supporters and close confidants of Paxton and one of them is a former career federal prosecutor – signed a one-page letter claiming Paxton misused his political position as one of the state’s top office holders and may have violated state and federal bribery laws.
Paxton said he hired an “outside independent prosecutor” to conduct an investigation into a case referred to him by Travis County officials in which allegations have been made that FBI officials and agents with the U.S. Treasury Department committed crimes when they conducted a raid involving Austin businessman Nate Paul last year.
Paxton, according to investigative reporting by the Austin American-Statesman, hired Houston criminal defense attorney Brandon Cammack as the special prosecutor. Cammack last week appeared before a Travis County grand jury seeking subpoenas.
The seven SG leaders sent Paxton a text last week saying they wanted to meet with him regarding his relationship with Nate Paul. Instead, Paxton told his top deputies to email them their concerns and questions and he would get back to them, according to the Statesman. Paul, a real estate investor, has been under federal investigation more than a year and is a financial contributor to Paxton’s campaign.
In response, Texas Deputy Attorney General Mark Penley, a longtime and highly respected former federal prosecutor who is over the state AG’s criminal division, sent Cammack a cease-and-desist letter.
“You have not been retained, authorized, or deputized by this office as such and your actions are entirely inappropriate and may be illegal,” Deputy Attorney General Mark Penley wrote to Cammack Wednesday, according to the Statesman.
The letter directed Cammack to stop taking any further actions.
On Friday, Paxton’s first assistant and the second highest ranking official in the Texas Attorney General’s office sent Paxton another text:
“General Paxton, yesterday, each of the individuals on this text chain made a good faith report of violations of law by you to an appropriate law enforcement authority concerning your relationship and activities with Nate Paul,” First Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Mateer told Paxton in the Oct. 1 text, which was published today by the Houston Chronicle.
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.”
In addition to Mateer and Penley, the letter’s signatories include Deputy First Assistant Ryan Bangert, 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.
More than a half-dozen former prosecutors told The Texas Lawbook that the allegations by the seven senior lawyers on Paxton’s staff warrant immediate investigations by state and federal authorities.
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.”