{"id":1942207,"date":"2023-06-01T18:28:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T22:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/independent-report-finds-ken-paxton-didnt-break-law-in-firing-former-officials\/"},"modified":"2023-06-01T18:31:19","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T22:31:19","slug":"independent-report-finds-ken-paxton-didnt-break-law-in-firing-former-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/independent-report-finds-ken-paxton-didnt-break-law-in-firing-former-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Paxton Didn&#8217;t Break Law in Firing Officials"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Findependent-report-finds-ken-paxton-didnt-break-law-in-firing-former-officials%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1942207&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Texas Attorney General Cleared of Wrongdoing in Retaliation Claims<\/h2>\n<div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0601\/66a85be6-73ba-417e-ada7-47fe310890c7\/audio.mp3?length=4438989&#038;duration=370\"><\/div>\n<p>An outside law firm has found that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2014who has been suspended from office pending the outcome of his impeachment trial in the Senate\u2014didn\u2019t break any laws or violate office procedure when he fired several individuals who accused him of wrongful dismissal and retaliation.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cSignificant evidence shows the actions of the OAG toward the Complainants were based on legitimate, non-retaliatory, business grounds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The report regarding retaliation claims by a number of former employees and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/seven-days-in-january-all-living-former-secretaries-of-defense-warn-trump-over-election-fight\/\" title=\"Seven Days in January? All Living Former Secretaries of Defense Warn Trump Over Election Fight\">political appointees<\/a> of the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG), released by Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard &#038; Smith LLP (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/press\/Report.pdf\">pdf<\/a>), found that there was\u00a0\u201csignificant evidence to show the actions of the OAG toward the Complainants were based on legitimate, non-retaliatory, business grounds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The law firm\u2019s findings dovetail with the conclusions of an earlier OAG investigation (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/files\/executive-management\/Internal%20Report.pdf\">pdf<\/a>) that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/news\/releases\/updated-office-attorney-general-releases-outside-law-firms-report-finding-no-violations-law-or\">similarly refuted<\/a> each of the former employees\u2019 and political appointees\u2019 allegations and called for a deeper probe into the matter.<\/p>\n<p>A half dozen or so former OAG employees had filed complaints against or sued Paxton for wrongful dismissal, claiming he ousted them in retaliation after they reported him to federal authorities for alleged crimes he committed in assisting Austin real estate developer Nate Paul.<\/p>\n<p>The allegations relating to Paul were a major part of the 20 Articles of impeachment filed recently against Paxton, including bribery and abuse of public trust.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican-controlled Texas House last week voted to impeach Paxton, sending the articles of impeachment to the state Senate for a trial and leading to Paxton\u2019s suspension as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-ag-barr-authorizes-federal-prosecutors-to-pursue-substantial-allegations-of-voting-irregularities-before-2020-election-is-certified\/\" title=\"BREAKING: AG Barr Authorizes Federal Prosecutors to Pursue \"Substantial Allegations\" of Voting Irregularities Before 2020 Election is Certified\">attorney general<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Paxton <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/texas-ag-ken-paxton-impeached-by-gop-controlled-state-house_5296071.html\">denounced the impeachment<\/a> as \u201cpolitically motivated\u201d and that it was \u201cnever meant to be fair or just.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5296180\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/05\/28\/id5296180-Ken-Paxton-1200x800.jpeg\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/05\/28\/id5296180-Ken-Paxton-1200x800.jpeg\" alt=\"Ken Paxton\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5296180\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a><br \/>\n\t\tTexas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Jacquelyn Martin\/AP Photo)<br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<h2>More Details<\/h2>\n<p>In October 2020, a number of top deputies in Paxton\u2019s agency told the FBI that they believed the attorney general had used his office to help Paul, who had donated $25,000 to Paxton\u2019s reelection campaign in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>All of the whistleblowers were fired or resigned, but the allegations led to a federal investigation into Paxton.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Justice later took over the investigation, but no federal charges have been filed against Paxton or Paul.<\/p>\n<p>Four of the whistleblowers filed a lawsuit against Paxton in 2020: James Blake Brickman, David Maxwell, Mark Penley, and Ryan Vassar. They claimed that Paxton ousted them as retaliation and then smeared them publicly.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Paxton broadly denied the claims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFacts matter. As time goes on people will see the truth of what we\u2019re saying, that these people, some of them, had legitimate issues unrelated to me that ended up resulting in their termination,\u201d Paxton said at the time.<\/p>\n<p>After about a year of investigating the whistleblowers\u2019 claims, Paxton\u2019s office issued a report that refuted the former employees\u2019 claims, with the outside law firm\u2019s follow-on report building on these findings.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard &#038; Smith LLP wrote that the OAG had \u201cvalid, non-retaliatory reasons for dismissing\u201d two of the employees while providing evidence in support of the view that the others were dismissed on legitimate grounds.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Attorneys for the complainants were not immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Paxton\u2019s office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/news\/releases\/updated-office-attorney-general-releases-outside-law-firms-report-finding-no-violations-law-or\">said in a statement<\/a> that it was releasing the law firm\u2019s report \u201cin light of the irresponsible, unfounded, and illegal impeachment\u201d of Paxton.<\/p>\n<p>Paxton is\u00a0only the third sitting official in Texas\u2019s nearly 200-year history to have been impeached.<\/p>\n<h2>Articles of Impeachment<\/h2>\n<p>The whistleblowers accused Paxton of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/texas-senate-sets-deadline-for-attorney-general-ken-paxtons-impeachment-trial\/\" title=\"Texas Senate imposes deadline for Ken Paxton's impeachment trial.\">improperly issuing legal opinions<\/a> to benefit Paul and had previously reached a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/independent-report-finds-ken-paxton-didnt-break-law-in-firing-former-officials\/\" title=\"Report: Paxton Didn't Break Law in Firing Officials\">tentative settlement agreement<\/a> with Paxton for $3.3 million, which prompted the\u00a0Texas House committee investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpecifically, Paxton benefited from<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An external law firm concluded that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton did not violate any laws or office procedures when he terminated employees who accused him of wrongful dismissal and retaliation. The report also addressed retaliation claims by some individuals. Paxton is currently suspended from office until his impeachment trial&#8217;s outcome in the Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":1942208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[5324,4352,4274,6547,3638,18466,3819],"class_list":["post-1942207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-break","tag-didnt","tag-firing","tag-law","tag-officials","tag-paxton","tag-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1942207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1942208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1942207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1942207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1942207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}