Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday that his office has filed an amended answer to end the whistleblower lawsuit against him.
A news release from the Office of the Attorney General sent to The Dallas Express states that Paxton and his team will be “moving on from an employment lawsuit against the agency by four employees that presents the same issues brought against Attorney General Paxton in the impeachment trial.”
The amended answer is meant to allow the court to decide on the case without requiring additional litigation.
The OAG stated in the amended answer that it has chosen “not to contest any issue of fact in this case.”
“There should be no doubt, however, that nothing stated herein should be construed as an admission that OAG, its employees, or the Attorney General violated any State or federal law — because none of them have violated any law as has been adequately and thoroughly shown elsewhere,” read the filing.
The OAG explained that it filed the amended answer due to concerns about the lawsuit becoming a “distraction that risks compromising critical state business” while also wasting taxpayer funds.
“Instead of moving on with terms mutually agreeable to both sides, these rogue former employees disavowed their own settlement and escalated their crusade against me,” Paxton said. “It has become increasingly clear their objective is not to resolve an employment lawsuit but to sabotage my leadership and this agency, ultimately aiming to undermine Texas as the nation’s leader against the federal government’s unlawful policies.”
“Further, whether a verdict will be funded in whole, in part, or not at all would be determined entirely by the Legislature, which has expressed its own negative opinion about the strength of the plaintiffs’ case by explicitly refusing to use taxpayer dollars to fund the plaintiffs’ disproven claims.”
However, Tom Nesbitt, an attorney for one of the whistleblowers, stated after Paxton’s filing that the “lawsuit is not over.”
“This is but another desperate stunt by Ken Paxton to try to avoid a court order compelling him to answer questions about his grimy behavior,” he said per Brad Johnson, a reporter for The Texan.
The ongoing lawsuit is based on claims made by the four OAG whistleblowers — James “Blake” Brickman, David Maxwell, Mark Penley, and Ryan Vassar — who allege they were fired unjustly from the OAG due to reporting Paxton to the FBI in 2020, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The four whistleblowers went to the FBI about concerns that the attorney general was abusing his power to benefit his political donor and friend, Nate Paul.
A settlement reached by the two sides would have resulted in Paxton paying a total of $3.3 million in damages, which Paxton requested be paid for by the state.
This request led to an investigation into the attorney general by the Texas House of Representatives and a subsequent impeachment trial.
The Texas Senate later acquitted Paxton on 16 of the 20 charges brought forth by the Hosue, with the remaining four charges being dropped.
Following the conclusion of the impeachment trial, the four whistleblowers attempted to start the litigation again.
A temporary restraining order briefly paused the lawsuit, but it was restarted after Travis County Judge Jan Soifer ruled that Paxton and three aides would be required to testify.
