Paxton’s top aide told senators that an agency-hired lawyer worked with the Travis County district attorney’s office to investigate a complaint by Nate Paul. County prosecutors dispute that.
Statements before a Senate committee in 2021 by First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster, shown speaking at a June 2022 news conference, could play a role in the impeachment trial of suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The question was an important one. In fall 2020, eight executives in Paxton’s agency met with FBI agents and state investigators to accuse Paxton of misusing his official authority to help Paul by hiring Cammack and by taking other unusual actions. Cammack, they alleged, misrepresented himself as a special prosecutor to secure 39 subpoenas intended to harass law enforcement and prosecutors investigating Paul.
“I’ve interviewed [assistant district attorneys] from Travis County and seen documents from Travis County that prove the fact that the Travis County DA’s office made Brandon Cammack a special prosecutor,” Webster said. “We did not make Brandon Cammack a special prosecutor, that was within the purview of the Travis County DA’s office.”Margaret Moore, the district attorney at the time of Cammack’s hiring, said her office did not ask Cammack to investigate the case or seek any subpoenas.
One of the articles accused Paxton of violating state law regulating how outside attorneys are hired when he contracted with Cammack to conduct an investigation into Paul’s “baseless complaint.” When the district attorney’s office declined to pursue an investigation, Paxton asked prosecutors to refer the complaint back to the attorney general’s office, according to Moore. That was done in a June 10, 2020 letter to Paxton’s office.
In early September 2020, Paxton told Vassar to draft a contract to hire Cammack as an outside counsel, the lawsuit said. A few days later, top employees, including Vassar, Penley and Maxwell, told authorities they believed Paxton was taking bribes for helping Paul.
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