On Tuesday, the Texas Attorney General's Office defended its proposed settlement agreement in the whistleblower lawsuit filed against the state.
Chris Hilton, litigation chief at the Attorney General's Office, answered questions about the lawsuit from members of a House Appropriations Subcommittee, which held a hearing on the agency's request for the next two-year budget.
Joe Knight, an attorney for one of the whistleblowers, Ryan Vassar, said state law requires the state agency to be the defendant."The only entity we could sue is not Mr. Paxton, but instead the office of the attorney general. The state is obligated by statute to defend the agency when a lawsuit is brought against it and when that lawsuit is resolved either in a settlement or a judgment, I think it's the state's obligation to pay that.
That led State Representative Jarvis Johnson, D-Houston, to ask Paxton a direct question during the hearing."General Paxton, will you be willing to pay for it out of your campaign account?" Knight said,"These men lost really high stakes and prestigious careers as a result of having the courage that they had to go to federal law enforcement officials over what they believed to be unlawful conduct. They didn't deserve to pay for that act of bravery and that act of loyalty to the state with some of the things that they experienced both in their personal and professional lives and in the press.
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