Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton faced questions about a $3 million settlement between his office and four ex-staffers who accused him of corruption. The question from lawmakers: Will taxpayers be on the hook for the pay out?
“I don’t want to speak for the Attorney General. I’ll just say that there is no whistleblower case where any individual has paid anything because the individual is not liable under the terms of the statute,” said Hilton.
Hilton pointed out, there is no admission of wrongdoing by anyone in the settlement but the legislature has to make the decision. “I think that it is one in which the citizens of Texas have not bought into the settlement and covering the settlement,” said Rep. Carl Sherman, Desoto. Republican Representative Jeff Leach who chairs the committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence, said in a statement, “I am extremely troubled and concerned that hardworking taxpayers are expected to be on the hook for this settlement between the Attorney General and former employees of his office.
We asked for a statement from the Attorney General’s office, and received this: “Under the plain text of chapter 554 of the Texas Government Code, the 'employing state or local governmental entity' is the required defendant in a whistleblower claim. Here, that’s the Office of the Attorney General, not any individual within the Office or some other party. Pursuant to the statute, if the funds are disbursed by the State of Texas, that process is managed by the Texas Legislature.
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