Power Has Its Privileges

Emails, meeting transcripts, invoices and court records obtained by The Texas Tribune or released by the House impeachment managers shed new light on how closely Paxton's friend Nate Paul worked with the AG's office to investigate his business rivals. https://t.co/HVqrGCkAx3

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) August 29, 2023

So, the Texas House has 4000 pages of documents, as well as testimony, chronicling (among other things), Paxton’s efforts to represent Nate Paul, an Austin real estate developer. The crux of the matter is Paul’s reversals of fortune (it’s almost a Greek tragedy):

Though Paul had once boasted of a portfolio worth $1.2 billion, in the preceding 18 months his businesses had defaulted on five loans or settlements, been sued by three creditors or investors and filed five bankruptcies, a Tribune analysis found.

Paul claimed he had been harassed by state and federal law enforcement officers in a raid of his home and business headquarters in August 2019. He also alleged they had altered the search warrants after they had been approved by a judge.

In short, Paul thinks a conspiracy involving business rivals, state and federal law enforcement, and judges, caused his problems. Paul went to Paxton, who went to the Travis County (Austin) D.A. to get authorization to open an AG investigation (AG has no criminal jurisdiction otherwise). When Paxton’s staff rejected Paul’s “evidence,” Paxton hired Brandon Cammack as a “special prosecutor.” But Paxton didn’t tell anybody on the staff about Cammack.

Cammack basically took his orders from Paul, drafting applications for subpoenas using language Paul provided. It was a recipe for harassment of Paul’s “enemies.”

The article brings this all to a conclusion here:

By Sept. 30, Paxton’s top deputies realized that Cammack had been working with Paul without their knowledge for four weeks. Horrified, Penley sent a letter to Cammack demanding that he stop work immediately. Cammack forwarded the email to Paxton an hour later with the subject line “URGENT.” 

Penley on Oct. 1 asked a judge to throw out the subpoenas Cammack had obtained because he lacked the authority to issue them. There were 39. 

When Paxton found out about the motion, he called Montford, the first assistant Travis County district attorney. He said his staff had lied, that Cammack’s appointment was legitimate, and that the court needed to know this information, Montford told investigators.  

“I would like to be heard by the judge,” Paxton said to Montford. 

But it was too late, she informed Paxton. The judge had already quashed the subpoenas. 

Cammack ceased working as Penley instructed and sent an invoice for $14,025. The agency has yet to pay it. 

Paxton on Oct. 2 placed Penley and Maxwell on investigative leave and fired both a month later. 

Wynne [Paul’s personal lawyer, who introduced Paxton to Cammack] wrote a letter to Paxton on Oct. 11 outlining a new complaint. The attorney general’s top deputies had inappropriately intervened to stop Cammack’s investigation, he said, and falsely stated that it lacked merit. 

“The actions of employees of the OAG have severely harmed and disadvantaged a Texas citizen and his family of their constitutional rights,” Wynne wrote. 

The victim, once again, was Paul.

Strong presumption of entitlement there. I guess access to powerful public officials grants you that, huh? And Paxton fired two of his top deputies one day after finding out he couldn’t revive Cammack’s 39 groundless subpoenas. That sense of entitlement runs throughout this case.

Paxton’s in this right up to his eyeballs. I wonder if there’s a sealed federal indictment waiting for the conclusion of the Senate trial to be opened. There would a a criminal investigation in Travis County if the Lege hadn’t abolished the office for investigating state corruption there.

We’ll have to see if there’s any appetite in Austin to pursue public corruption.