{"id":2028532,"date":"2023-09-11T19:48:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T23:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ken-paxtons-incredibly-dangerous-behavior-forced-staff-to-go-to-fbi-impeachment-witness\/"},"modified":"2023-09-11T19:48:51","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T23:48:51","slug":"ken-paxtons-incredibly-dangerous-behavior-forced-staff-to-go-to-fbi-impeachment-witness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ken-paxtons-incredibly-dangerous-behavior-forced-staff-to-go-to-fbi-impeachment-witness\/","title":{"rendered":"Impeachment witness: Staff reported Ken Paxton&#8217;s &#8216;dangerous&#8217; actions to FBI."},"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\">20<\/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%2Fken-paxtons-incredibly-dangerous-behavior-forced-staff-to-go-to-fbi-impeachment-witness%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=2028532&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>AUSTIN, \u200dTexas \u2014 Former Prosecutor Reveals Shocking \u200bDetails in Ken Paxton Impeachment Trial<\/h2>\n<h3>Protecting the\u200c Attorney General from an &#8220;Outrageous&#8221; Mistake<\/h3>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Ken\u2064 Paxton&#8217;s former lead prosecutor \u200cdescribed attempts by top-ranking staff in 2020 \u200cto protect the attorney\u2063 general from making an &#8220;outrageous&#8221; mistake by getting involved with real estate developer Nate Paul.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Mark \u200dPenley, the attorney general&#8217;s \u200dformer criminal justice \u2064deputy, testified in the\u2063 impeachment\u200b trial \u2062before the state Senate on Monday that he and\u200c seven other employees went to the FBI on Sept. 30, 2020, because they were \u2063powerless\u200d to stop Paxton from misusing state resources and they\u2062 wanted to\u200d protect\u2063 themselves \u200dfrom \u200cbeing associated with unflattering allegations, should that information become public \u200dknowledge.<\/p>\n<h3>Standing Up Against Abuse of Power<\/h3>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;The agency was being abused,\u2063 the laws were being abused, the behavior and\u2063 the conduct \u200bof the attorney general of \u200dTexas \u200bwas outrageous,&#8221; Penley\u2062 said. &#8220;I&#8217;d do the same thing all over again because \u200bit was the right thing \u200bto do and the only thing we could, other than stand by silently and \u200blet crimes be\u200c committed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Penley and seven attorney general office employees went to\u200b the \u200cFBI together and shared over the course of nearly four hours their experiences working with\u200c Paxton and why they were concerned about ethical and legal violations related to Paul.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u200c feared we\u200d would get fired,&#8221; Penley said. &#8220;We all knew \u200bthis was an incredibly dangerous and unique but outrageous situation. We were\u2064 the only ones who could stop it, and we had to.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The employees did not bring any \u200dphysical evidence, which Penley told House prosecutor Rusty Hardin was not unusual for a first-time encounter \u200dwith law\u200d enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>Penley said his concerns with Paxton began in late 2019 when Paxton asked him\u2063 to join a phone call in which Paul proceeded to explain to them why \u2064he believed the federal government \u200chad wronged him.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI had \u2064recently \u200bsearched Paul&#8217;s residence \u200dafter obtaining a search warrant signed off by a federal magistrate. Paul claimed that when the \u200bfederal agents \u200bsearched his house and\u2062 came up short \u200bof the drugs and guns\u200c that they had\u200c cited as the\u2062 basis of their\u200b search, they broke federal\u200b law and changed the warrant to be about a search for documents.<\/p>\n<p>Paxton was on board with Paul&#8217;s request despite how unusual and potentially illegal for a state attorney general to investigate something that the federal government and state police had been involved in. Paxton was empathetic to Paul for how he said they had both been victims of law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He made comments to me that \u200bindicated he \u200cwas very mistrustful of law enforcement. \u200b&#8230; \u200bHe \u2063said, \u200b&#8217;I&#8217;ve been the subject of a corrupt\u2062 investigation,'&#8221; Penley recalled. &#8220;I thought he was misguided. I thought he \u2063was biased against law enforcement to his detriment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, Paxton was indicted\u200d on three <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ken-paxton-accused-of-breaking-multiple-state-laws-in-texas-house-inquiry\/\" title=\"Ken Paxton accused of violating Texas state laws in House inquiry.\">felony <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hunter-biden-defector-emails-pipeline-to-obama-admin-seen-as-currency\/\" title=\"Hunter Biden Defector Emails: 'Pipeline' to Obama Admin Seen as 'Currency'\">securities fraud charges<\/a><\/a>, which involved the Texas Department \u200dof Public\u2063 Safety that he said\u2064 he had grown to dislike because of how \u200che believed they had targeted him.<\/p>\n<p>Penley \u2064and his colleagues \u200bwere pressured to get with Paul and look into the matter but\u2063 were unable\u200c to get documents\u200b and \u200devidence from Paul \u2062and his associates during the summer\u200b of 2020.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had absolutely no scintilla\u200b of evidence that \u200bany criminal activity had occurred on\u2063 the \u200cpart of\u2062 the\u200c federal agents, estate agents, the\u200c federal\u2064 prosecutor, or the federal judge,&#8221;\u2062 Penley said.<\/p>\n<p>Penley told Paxton that moving forward and helping Paul\u2064 would make for a\u2064 &#8220;very dangerous investigation&#8221; because \u200bPaul was his friend and had donated money to his campaign. Helping him out\u2063 in\u200c an unprecedented way would &#8220;look like bribery.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I said, &#8216;Ethically,\u200d Ken, I can&#8217;t\u2063 proceed with this investigation. And I&#8217;m\u200d the senior prosecutor in the agency. If it&#8217;s not right for \u200cme to do it, it&#8217;s not right for me to delegate it \u2064to anybody else,'&#8221; Penley said.<\/p>\n<p>Paxton was upset\u2062 by\u2064 Penley&#8217;s response but appeased Penley in the moment and \u2063did not protest his decision. Penley\u2062 said Paxton could be &#8220;passive-aggressive,&#8221; and \u2063when he \u200ddid not get the response he wanted\u2064 from Penley that day, Paxton went about it on his own.<\/p>\n<p>Paxton hired outside lawyer Brandon Cammack to investigate\u2063 the FBI under \u200dthe guise \u2064of the\u200b attorney general&#8217;s office and then tried to pay Cammack $50,000 in state funds for his work in the first two weeks. Penley refused to pay or oversee Cammack&#8217;s side \u2063efforts, so Paxton agreed to preside over Cammack&#8217;s investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Cammack quickly issued subpoenas for two regional banks to turn over information about the FBI investigation into Paul. Penley and other\u200c whistleblowers were shocked that the\u200c nongovernmental lawyer had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ken-paxtons-incredibly-dangerous-behavior-forced-staff-to-go-to-fbi-impeachment-witness\/\" title=\"Impeachment witness: Staff reported Ken Paxton's 'dangerous' actions to FBI.\">issued\u2062 criminal subpoenas<\/a> in a\u200b civil case, he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was even\u200b more apoplectic. I \u2062was furious \u2062that this was going on, and the attorney general was allowing it,&#8221; \u200bPenley\u200b said. &#8220;This had to be \u200cstopped. \u2063The attorney\u200b general obviously\u200b wasn&#8217;t listening to\u200d anybody. He\u2063 had turned Mr. Cammack loose. We didn&#8217;t know what Mr. Cammack was going to do. It appeared that Mr. Paul \u200dwas controlling this.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When Penley refused to sign off on the state&#8217;s reimbursing Cammack for\u200b his legal fees, Paxton \u2064was furious.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He said, &#8216;You don&#8217;t know what it feels \u2063like to be the target of a corrupt\u2063 law enforcement \u2062investigation,'&#8221; \u2064Penley said, referring \u200bto comments Paxton had made to\u200d him. &#8220;&#8216;I spent $50,000 on my case, things of\u200c that nature.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Paxton also made \u200bdisparaging comments to Penley, specifically about Texas \u200dDPS, who he claimed ran a &#8220;corrupt&#8221; investigation into his \u2063securities fraud charges. His distrust for law enforcement, Penley said, fueled his desire to\u2063 help \u200cPaul, who maintained he was \u2063also a victim of the police.<\/p>\n<p>Penley\u2063 was\u2064 the \u200dfifth witness to testify since the trial began Sept. 5. The Senate is expected to decide starting\u200b later\u200d this week on the 16 articles of impeachment that Paxton faces \u2062for corruption and other abuses while\u200c in office. Paxton has pleaded\u2063 not guilty to all charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the impeachment trial, Mark Penley, Ken Paxton&#8217;s ex-lead prosecutor, revealed that in 2020, high-ranking staff tried to shield the attorney general from a potentially disastrous error involving real estate developer Nate Paul. Penley, the former criminal justice deputy, described these efforts as crucial during his testimony before the state Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2028533,"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":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2028532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"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\/2028532","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2028532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2028533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2028532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2028532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2028532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}