AUSTIN, Texas — A Travis County judge has ordered the Texas Attorney General’s Office to pay nearly $7 million to the whistleblowers in his office who reported him to the FBI.
The whistleblowers initially sued, claiming they were improperly fired.
This is the same set of circumstances that led to Paxton being impeached by the Texas House in 2023. Paxton was ultimately acquitted in his trial in the Texas Senate.
In the judgment, the court said that “Plaintiffs have proved liability, damages, and reasonable and necessary attorney’s fees by a preponderance of the evidence. Because the Office of the Attorney General violated the Texas Whistleblower Act by firing and otherwise retaliating against the Plaintiffs for in good faith reporting violations of law by Ken Paxton and OAG, the Court hereby renders judgment for Plaintiffs.”
The court also said that the “OAG (Office of the Attorney General), by and through its counsel of record, elected not to dispute the Plaintiffs’ lawsuit as to any issue, including any issue of fact in this case as to the claim or damages,” and that “Plaintiffs made their reports to law enforcement in good faith, and OAG terminated each of the Plaintiffs because of their reports to law enforcement in violation of the Texas Whistleblower Act”
Tom Nesbitt, the attorney for Blake Brickman and TJ Turner, the attorney for David Maxwell, released a statement Friday regarding the ruling:
“Late Friday afternoon, after a trial in state district court, our clients were awarded a judgment confirming that the Office of the Attorney General violated the Texas Whistleblower Act. After litigating for more than four years due to OAG’s many delay tactics, Ken Paxton finally admitted to breaking the law to avoid being questioned under oath, but also because he had no defense.
“It should shock all Texans that their chief law enforcement officer, Ken Paxton, admitted to violating the law, but that is exactly what happened in this case.
“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.”
Shortly after the ruling, Paxton released a statement of his own, decrying and pledging to appeal the ruling, while also blaming former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan and the Biden administration for his impeachment:
“The sham impeachment orchestrated by the disgraced former Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan, in collusion with Joe Biden’s corrupt DOJ, has already cost taxpayers over five million dollars. The Texas Senate rejected their witch hunt after the allegations were proven to be false with no evidence to support them.
Now a liberal Austin judge wants the people of Texas to pay even more for the Phelan/Biden corrupt impeachment scheme with a ridiculous judgment that is not based on the facts or the law.
We will appeal this bogus ruling as we continue to clean up Dade Phelan’s mess.”