Whistleblowers Seek Funds from AG
Who Tried to Get Them Paid in House

Capitol Inside
September 25, 2023

Texas House GOP leaders appear to be leaving a group of whistleblowers high and dry in the latest unintended consequence that they've left in the wake of a failed bid to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The former Paxton assistants vowed on Monday at a news conference to shift a fight they lost in the Texas Senate to the state's highest court in an attempt to collect more than $3 million in damages they were promised in a settlement with the AG in an illegal termination lawsuit. But the whistleblowers could be barking up the wrong tree based on the way the historic case has evolved.

1. Paxton sought to get the ex-aides paid in an appearance before the House Appropriations Committee.

2. The House denied the attorney general's request for the funding that it would take to compensate them for the losses that they say they suffered when he fired them illegally after accusing him of bribery and other allegations they reported to the FBI.

3. After rejecting Paxton's bid to get the whistleblowers the money in accordance with the terms of the settlement they'd endorsed, House leaders who's portrayed them as courageous public servants and heroes seized on the work they'd invested in the suit as a springboard to the impeachment they initiated instead.

GOP Speaker Dade Phelan and top lieutenants say they were shocked and offended that a high-ranking official would have the audacity to make such a request. That was the inspiration of the first impeachment of a statewide official in Texas in more than 100 years based their own narrative.

The whistleblowers on whom the House pinned the case pledged to take the legal battle to the Texas Supreme Court at the press conference at the Capitol. The whistleblowers lavished prase on the two Senate Republicans who voted with the Democrats for Paxton's impeachment.

But House leaders have portrayed the former Paxton assistants as heroic public servants who had the guts to stand up for their principles. And whistleblowers could be holding an empty bag now as a result of the speaker team's decision to pursue the impeachment instead of ensuring that they wouldn't be shortchanged.

The attempt to collect at the highest Texas civil could be a challenge if they must first get formal attention the Legislature to sue the state in light of sovereign immunity protections. That would require from both the House and the Senate where 16 Republicans overrode their allegations and voted to acquit the AG.

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick accused the whistleblowers and their ostensible allies of wasting the Senate's time with a case that was filled with holes that prosecutors either missed or took no time to try to fill.

Paxton defense lawyer Tony Buzbee contended at the trial that the former assistants staged a coup because they didn't like the way the attorney general was running the agency he was elected to lead. They could find the Senate to be a tough if not impossible sell with a potential resolution that would give them the green light they might need to have a shot at getting paid.

The whisteblowers saluted GOP State Senators Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills and Robert Nichols of Jacksonville for refusing to wilt under pressure with their votes to impeach. Patrick and the other Senate Republicans will see that as blatant implication that they caved instead.

The assistant could try to get ther money from Paxton as an individual after the snub from House agreed the settlement by pooling personal resources they will never need. Or they could try to get back the taxpayer funds that the House spent on legendary lawyers and other bills as money they could use to help pay the whistleblowers who are not rich and may find it hard to gain future employment with the state.

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