Whistleblowers Ask Texas Supreme Court To Return Their Case To Travis County District Court

Four whistleblowers, former top deputies of the Texas Attorney General’s Office who reported Attorney General Ken Paxton to federal authorities, continued their legal fight on Monday despite Paxton prevailing in the impeachment proceedings against him.

In a Monday filing to the Texas Supreme Court, Blake Brickman, Ryan Vassar, Mark Penley and David Maxwell requested that their case return to Travis County District Court. Brickman, who served as the former deputy attorney general for policy and strategy under Paxton, said during a news conference held at the Texas Capitol on Monday that they believe they’ll have a much “fairer chance” with jurors.

“The political trial is over, and it’s time for the case to return to a real court,” Brickman said, referring to the senators votes to acquit Paxton of the Articles of Impeachment drawn up against him by the Texas House. The attorney general was accused of accepting bribes and misuse of his public office.

The whistleblowers are arguing that the abatement placed on their lawsuit, which was filed in November 2020, should be lifted as Paxton has failed to provide two key conditions of the settlement agreement: the $3.3 million to Brickman, Vassar, Penley and David and an apology for disparaging comments Paxton made in the media about the former top deputies.

The decision to attempt to resume legal proceedings comes after the Texas Legislature did not approve funding requested by Paxton to come from taxpayers’ dollars for the settlement amount.

Instead, Paxton’s request led the Texas House Investigating Committee to investigate the top deputies’ allegations of Paxton’s wrongdoings. The whistleblowers accused Paxton of abusing his power and ability in office to assist Paxton’s close friend and political donor, Austin real estate investor Nate Paul, and of wrongfully terminating them in retaliation for going to the FBI.

Brickman said the House could still allow the settlement; however, the whistleblowers had been given “zero indication” that was likely to happen and, as a result, opted to file the request to return the case to the court’s active docket.

According to Brickman, if the case is sent back to the trial court, Paxton will have to testify under oath or plead the fifth – exercise his right to remain silent – in open court. This is unlike impeachment proceedings, where Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick ruled that Paxton would not have to testify.

Patrick’s decision allowed Paxton to miss all but two days of his impeachment trial, the first day when the then-suspended attorney general had to answer to 16 of the 20 articles of impeachment and the final day when Paxton appeared for closing arguments.

Brickman said in addition to Paxton, jurors could hear testimony from Laura Olson, the woman whom Paxton had an extramarital affair with, Raj Kumar; Paul’s friend and associate who was the contractor on Paxton’s house; Paul; and Senator Angela Paxton (R-McKinney), Paxton’s wife.

According to Brickman, the jury may also see evidence from the House Impeachment managers that Patrick prohibited from consideration during the impeachment trial.

Brickman held up a receivers’ report – which shows how much money gets distributed to creditors throughout a liquidation process and functions as a balance sheet to show what assets are worth and any liabilities due – that he had brought to the press conference to back his claims. Brickman said this report had been filed in one of Paul’s bankruptcy cases and affirmed that Kumar was a convicted felon who assisted Paul in fraud.

Brickman also echoed concerns shared by others about Patrick’s impartiality while presiding over the Senate – especially after the Lieutenant Governor’s pointed remarks condemning the way the House impeachment managers and investigators went about Paxton’s impeachment process.

“I have never witnessed in my life a judge directly upon a verdict making a statement like that. It was shocking,” Brickman said.

Brickman said he thinks the judge will be more independent than Patrick, who received $3 million in contributions from Defend Texas Liberty PAC before impeachment proceedings.

Paxton’s acquittal has created a divide within the Republican party and heightened tensions between the House and the Senate. House Speaker Dade Phelan condemned the senators for failing to hold Paxton accountable.

Two Republican senators, Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills) and Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville), confronted backlash from fellow GOP politicians and supporters because they were the only two Senate Republicans to vote to convict Paxton on any of impeachment articles.

Brickman refuted Paxton and other conservative Republicans’ claims that the impeachment was a political witch hunt.

“As a conservative Republican who has been in the trenches for basically 20 years of conservative Republican politics, Ken Paxton is not my standard bearer, and I will keep fighting to make sure that our party does not become the party of corruption,” Brickman said.