It’s Not Really A Question Of Criminality

⚠️ 𝗣𝗮𝘅𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹 𝗙𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗔 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿. 

 𝓒𝓗𝓐𝓟𝓣𝓔𝓡 𝟑: 

Paxton allegedly used his AG powers to keep Nate Paul's real estate empire afloat, intervening in a lawsuit brought by a charity after Paul refused to open his books on properties the charity had invested with him in. 

Paul had agreed to pay the charity $10.5 million, then welshed. Paxton reportedly told the AG's Charitable Trust Division to help Paul – 𝙉𝙊𝙏 the charity – telling the charity to let Paul pay less than half the $10.5 million the charity sought. Paxton's aides say they told him this was wrong, reminding him the AG had a legal responsibility to fight for the charity.

 ⚖️ 𝐓𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐰 𝐒𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐏𝐚𝐱𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐇𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐚𝐮𝐥, 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐆𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐱𝐭𝐨𝐧'𝐬 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐀 𝐉𝐨𝐛 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐏𝐚𝐱𝐭𝐨𝐧'𝐬 𝐀𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞. Political advertising paid for by Texans Against Public Corruption, Inc. 

Paxton’s director of law enforcement, a Texas Ranger with 30 years experience:

“I told him Nate Paul was a criminal,” Maxwell said. “That he was running a Ponzi scheme that would rival Billie Sol Estes,” the infamous Texas conman who was convicted of stealing millions of dollars in federal crop subsidies in the 1960s.

Paxton’s response was to threaten to fire Maxwell.

“I knew then what his commitment was to Nate Paul and that he was not going to be deterred,” Maxwell said. “He was angry with me because I was not buying into the big conspiracy theory." 

Maxwell was one of the whistleblowers who sued after they were fired by Paxton after reporting him to law enforcement, and said Paxton “ended my career in a very unjust manner.” 

“I did nothing wrong by standing up for right,” he added.

And Paxton's counsel is doing a bang-up job:

Maxwell often responded by saying that Paul did not explicitly ask for him to break the law — but that the request, if fulfilled, would have created a “map” for a crime. 

“To create this investigation and follow through with it would be obstruction of justice and interfering with a federal investigation,” Maxwell responded. 

Maxwell also said that he never had “any intention” of investigating Paul’s claims, one of which was that a search warrant for his businesses was fraudulent. After a testy exchange with Cogdell, Maxwell testified that he decided Paul’s claims weren’t serious after looking at the search warrant and deeming that it was indeed, “lawful.” 

“There was no investigation to be done,” he said.