The Dallas Morning News. Nov. 8
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton must resign now
Texas needs a functional attorney’s general office. It cannot have that under Ken Paxton.
Ken Paxton must resign as attorney general of the state of Texas. Full stop.
The issue now goes beyond whether a crime has been committed, and there are mounting allegations against him. It raises questions of whether he can do the job and whether the people of the state of Texas reasonably can have faith in him to do the job.
The answer to both questions is a resounding no.
At the beginning of last month, seven top officials in Paxton’s office signed a whistleblower complaint accusing the attorney general of engaging in improper influence peddling, bribery and other criminal offenses. They requested a federal investigation into Paxton centering on his relationship with a major campaign donor, real estate developer Nate Paul.
Paul, we later learned, had his home and business raided by the FBI in August 2019. According to a raft of statements, Paxton took issue with Paul’s treatment at the hand of federal authorities and decided to launch an investigation of his own.
Over the summer, Paxton’s top deputy - the now-former first assistant attorney general Jeff Mateer - became increasingly concerned about Paxton personally intervening in other matters involving Paul, including a lawsuit between Paul and a charity. Paxton planned to personally appear in court to try to put the charity’s suit on hold, Mateer told our reporters, until Mateer talked him out of it.
Paxton’s decision to hire a special prosecutor to investigate Paul’s claims of mistreatment by federal law enforcement was apparently the last straw for his leading deputies. Senior officials in the attorney’s general office had already examined Paul’s claims and found them without merit.
In September, Paxton signed off on his office hiring an inexperienced civil attorney as a special prosecutor. That attorney, Brandon Cammack, then fired off 37 subpoenas that a lead prosecutor in Paxton’s office argued were invalid because Cammack was not authorized to act as a special prosecutor. A judge agreed and the subpoenas were quashed.
In early October, the whistleblower complaint was filed and became public. Paxton denied its content and proceeded to fire two of the signatories and place two others on investigative leave. Mateer resigned on Oct. 5 and another signatory, Darren McCarty, confirmed his resignation Oct. 26.
Now, investigative reporters Lauren McGaughy and Allie Morris have uncovered that Paul hired a former legislative aide whom, he recalled in a sworn statement, Paxton had recommended. Paxton had had an affair with the woman Paul hired, two sources told McGaughy and Morris.
All of this stinks to the heavens, but none of it is an assurance Paxton is guilty of anything, and we don’t know the status of an investigation into Paxton’s alleged activities on behalf of Paul.
What we do know is the state’s top law enforcement official lost the faith of his top officers. He lost our faith. And he should lose your faith, too, that he can execute the duties of this office.
Texas needs a functional attorney’s general office. It cannot have that under Paxton.
He must resign now.
Timeline of Ken Paxton’s troubles
2014 - Paxton is elected attorney general.
July 2015 - Paxton is arrested on felony charges of securities fraud for allegedly convincing people to invest in Servergy Inc. without disclosing he had a stake in the deal. The case is pending and being handled by special prosecutors.
2018 - Real estate developer Nate Paul donates $25,000 to Paxton’s reelection campaign.
August 2019 - The FBI raids Paul’s home and business in Austin.
March-September 2020 - According to top officials in the attorney general’s office, Paxton became involved at least four times in a range of legal matters that involved Paul, including a lawsuit between Paul and a charity, the Roy F. and Joann Cole Mitte Foundation.
July 22 - First Assistant Attorney General Jeff Mateer learns Paxton wanted to personally appear in court to argue that a charity’s lawsuit against Paul should be put on hold. Senior staff talked Paxton out of the unusual plan, Mateer said.
August - Paxton directs legal staff to rush an opinion that helped Paul avoid foreclosure sales on several properties, according to the Austin American Statesman.
September - Paxton signed off on bringing on civil defense attorney Brandon Cammack, a lawyer with five years’ experience, to act as outside counsel to investigate Paul’s complaints.
Oct. 1 - Seven top officials in Paxton’s office file a whistleblower complaint accusing Paxton of “improper influence, bribery and other potential criminal offenses.” They requested a federal investigation.
Oct. 2 - A judge quashes 37 subpoenas Cammack secured related to the Paul investigation, agreeing with a top lawyer in Paxton’s office that Cammack was not “properly authorized to act as a Special Prosecutor on behalf of the Attorney General.”
Oct. 5 - Mateer, one of the seven who signed the complaint, resigns.
Oct. 6 - In a public statement, Paxton accuses attorney general’s office employees of impeding an investigation into Paul’s treatment by “the FBI, other government agencies and individuals.”
Oct. 9 - Paxton’s office ends an inquiry into Paul’s treatment by federal law enforcement after Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore vowed not to prosecute any resulting case.
October - Mark Penley, deputy attorney general for criminal justice; Lacey Mase, deputy attorney general for administration; and James “Blake” Brickman, deputy attorney general for policy and strategic initiatives, are fired. Deputy Attorney General Ryan Vassar is placed on investigative leave. All four signed the whistleblower complaint.
Oct. 23 - The chief judge in Harris County rules that Paxton’s securities fraud case should be removed from Harris County and returned to Collin County.
Oct. 26 - Darren McCarty, deputy attorney general for civil litigation and a signatory of the whistleblower complaint, confirms he has resigned.
Oct. 29 - The Dallas Morning News reports that Paul has accused a host of people, including a federal judge, of orchestrating a conspiracy to steal his properties. This complaint was also referred to Cammack for investigation.
Nov. 2 - In a deposition related to the charity lawsuit, Paul said he hired a former legislative aid on what he believed was Paxton’s recommendation. Two sources tell The News that Paxton had a romantic relationship with the woman.
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Austin American-Statesman. Nov. 4
Project Connect must live up to public’s trust
As Capital Metro CEO Randy Clarke says: “It’s go-time.”
Austin voters have finally embraced a long-range vision - and the critically important funding - to dramatically improve mass transit in America’s 11th-largest city. The approval Tuesday night of Proposition A, a permanent property tax hike to fund Project Connect, marks a major milestone in Austin’s efforts to address traffic, curb pollution and provide better access to jobs and educational opportunities around the city.
This is progress on a generational scale. Yet so much of the difficult work still lies ahead.
Officials with Cap Metro and the city of Austin embarked on an extensive two-year study and public engagement process to craft Project Connect, a plan calling for light rail, commuter rail and expanded bus service. In a city that has twice defeated other transit propositions, that two-year process was essential to develop a plan - including new light rail lines through Central Austin and to the airport - that could win widespread voter support.
Now that the concept has taxpayers’ blessing, experts will start developing the more detailed engineering plans for 27 miles of light rail, 31 stations and a downtown tunnel. Officials will have to figure out how to design those transit routes while maintaining access for cars and other travelers. The residents, businesses and commuters along those routes deserve a transparent process that values their voices in those design decisions.
As we’ve noted before, rigorous oversight is key to maintaining trust with the public. The experts who will soon be appointed to serve on Project Connect’s governing board must be willing to ask difficult questions and challenge assumptions. The public also deserves a detailed accounting of the $300 million set aside to keep residents near the transit lines from being pushed out by rising housing costs. The city and Capital Metro must prove they are using those dollars effectively.
The financial commitment approved by voters is sizable: an estimated $284 added to the typical homeowner’s annual property tax bill. And it is permanent. Voters stepped up with this commitment despite the shaky economy, despite the fact they’ll pay higher taxes for nearly a decade before these light rail lines are up and running.
Those dollars, and that public trust, must not be squandered. Project Connect’s champions scored a win with voters. Now they must deliver a transit system worthy of the public’s investment.
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Fort Worth Star Telegram. Nov. 6
Cornyn, Cruz, other Texans must renounce Trump’s claim of vast election conspiracy
President Donald Trump has leveled charges of vast fraud in several battleground states, supposedly aimed at usurping a victory that he declares he has won.
It’s a grave accusation of a grand conspiracy. The problem is, he and his team have yet to produce evidence that it’s true. Absent that, the president’s words threaten to baselessly undermine the mechanics of our democracy and give millions of Americans cause to believe a terrible crime has been committed.
Texas Republicans in Congress who have stood with Trump must make clear that this is unacceptable. They should publicly express confidence in our system.
At a minimum, Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, Reps. Kay Granger of Fort Worth and Ron Wright of Arlington, should call on the president publicly to release evidence of fraud, if his campaign has it. Rep. Roger Williams of Austin has already, unfortunately, alleged mass corruption, stirring up his Twitter followers without elaborating or providing any proof. (The social media company briefly suspended the congressman’s account.)
Trump said Thursday that “if you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.” He hinted that votes being counted late in the process were inherently suspect. He suggested that polls were intentionally rigged against him. He said Democrats are in charge of vote counting in each of the remaining disputed states, which is false.
Perhaps most incredibly, the president expressed wonderment that mail-in ballots were going heavily for Democrat Joe Biden. After he and other Republicans spent months urging their followers to vote in person, what did he expect?
We’ve asked the senators and local Republican representatives about the president’s accusations, and they have yet to respond. Cornyn, to his credit, has retweeted Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell’s call for all legal votes to be counted.
Cruz has raised the issue of Republican vote-counting observers being legally barred from watching the process, though the president’s campaign has already litigated that issue.
“Republican poll watchers were denied meaningful access to the ballot processing and counting process in Philadelphia, posing a direct threat to the integrity of our elections,” his office said in a written statement. “That’s why a Pennsylvania court ordered that observers must be allowed within six feet of all aspects of the ballot counting process. As Senator Cruz has said, the American people have the right to expect votes will be counted fairly, with transparency, and not in secret.”
Cornyn, in a now-famous interview with the Star-Telegram Editorial Board, explained that he has learned it’s more effective to express disagreement with Trump in private. We agree that persuading Trump is impossible if you bawl him out in public.
This time, though, the moment is too big. It’s not primarily about the president and what he believes. It’s also about the 70 million-plus people who voted for him. They deserve to have confidence that their votes weren’t improperly diluted.
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