Austin, Texas
Cnn
–
A judge of the district court granted $ 6.6 million combined to four denouncators who were dismissed shortly after reporting the Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton to the FBI.
“By a preponderance of evidence,” wrote the county judge of Travis, Catherine Mauzy, in her Friday judgment, the complainants have proven responsibility, damage and lawyer in their complaint against the office of the Attorney General.
“Because the Office of the Prosecutor General violated the Law on Texas Denunciators in dismissing and by retalling otherwise against the applicant to have violations of the law by Ken Paxton and Oag, the court renders the present judgment for the complainants,” wrote Mauzy.
The court concluded that the four Paxton aids had been dismissed in retaliation for reporting allegations according to which he used his office to accept bribes from a real estate promoter from Austin who employed a woman with whom Paxton had an extramarital case. Paxton denied accepting bribes or abusing her office to help Nate Paul, the property developer.
The judgment also declared that the employees made their relations to the police forces “in good faith” and that the office of Paxton did not challenge any complaints or damage in the trial.
“It should shock all the Texans that their head of the police, Ken Paxton, admitted to having violated the law, but that is exactly what happened in this case,” said Tom Nesbitt, lawyer of Blake Brickman, and TJ Turner, lawyer for David Maxwell, in a joint press release.
In a declaration to the media, Paxton, a Republican, described the decision as “ridiculous” and “not based on facts or the law”. He also said that his office intended to appeal the decision.
Paxton was at the center of a federal investigation after eight employees reported his office in the FBI in 2020 for allegations of corruption. Paxton in 2023 accepted a regulation of $ 3.3 million and apology, but no admission of reprehensible acts, with four of the denunciators. After Paxton asked the state legislators to finance the regulation, the Texas House rejected its request, conducted its own investigation and dismissed it in 2023. He was then acquitted in the State Senate.
In November, the Supreme Texas Court canceled a short -term decision that Paxton testifies in the trial.
The United States Ministry of Justice has decided not to continue its investigation into Paxton in the last weeks of the Biden administration, according to two familiar people with the question that spoke to the Associated Press subject to anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
More shaded by the federal survey on corruption that weighed on its amount rising in the Republican Party, Paxton is now preparing for a potential race for the United States Senate. Paxton, a close ally of President Donald Trump, suggested that the senator of GOP John Cornyn for more than a year, but has not said when he will make a decision.