The Texas Attorney General’s Office must pay four whistleblowers $6.7 million after a judge found they were subjected to retaliation for reporting corruption allegations against Attorney General Ken Paxton to federal investigators.
The amount is more than twice the amount the agency would have paid under a proposed settlement Paxton reached with the former top aides in 2023. State lawmakers did not agree to fund the payment, but Paxton’s request for them to do so led to a historic impeachment trial where Paxton was acquitted.
“Now the Texas Legislature needs to do the honorable thing and fund the judgment so these brave public servants can be compensated for the lost pay and damages they suffered when Paxton illegally terminated their employment,” attorneys Tom Nesbitt and TJ Turner, who represented two of the four, said in a statement.
Paxton said in a statement released to news outlets that he would appeal, calling the ruling a “ridiculous judgment that is not based on the facts or the law.”
State District Judge Catherine Mauzy issued the judgement late Friday following a two-day trial. Mauzy noted in her ruling that “OAG by and through its counsel of record elected not to dispute plaintiff’s lawsuit as to any issue, including any issue of fact in this case.”
Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at a news conference at the Price Daniel State Office Building on Friday May 26, 2023.
The former staffers — Blake Brickman, David Maxwell, Mark Penley and Ryan Vassar — sued the agency after they said Paxton’s office attempted to harass and intimate them, placing them on leave and terminating their employment. The said that they made their allegations in good faith.
Mauzy ordered each of the plaintiffs to receive compensation for lost wages and emotional pain and mental anguish. They will get an average of about $1.6 million each.
The allegations centered on Paxton’s relationship with Austin real estate investor Nate Paul and whether Paxton benefited from helping Paul while was the target of an FBI investigation.
The U.S. Department of Justice spent about four years investigating those claims, but the Associated Press, citing anonymous sources in Washington D.C. this week, reported that the department had chosen not to bring a case against Paxton in the final months of the Biden administration.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas AG Ken Paxton ordered to pay $6.7 million to whistleblowers
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