AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office released a report Tuesday claiming to clear him of allegations that he repeatedly abused his office to help a campaign donor.
It’s not clear who authored the report or how many work hours or taxpayer dollars went into producing it. The agency did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday morning.
The 374-page internal report declared all of Paxton’s actions regarding Austin real estate developer Nate Paul “were indeed lawful” and that all allegations against him were “either factually incorrect or legally deficient.” It added there was “no evidence” of a bribe or quid pro quo relationship between Paxton and Paul.
The FBI is investigating the claims, lodged by several senior employees last year, that Paxton was bribed and used his power as attorney general to help Paul, who is a campaign donor. The federal agency has not filed any charges and did not immediately return a request for comment.
Paxton denies the allegations and has pointed back at the eight employees, all of whom resigned or were fired from the agency. Four are now suing Paxton for retaliation, and have accused him of swapping political favors for Paul’s help remodeling his home and getting a job for a woman with whom the attorney general was allegedly having an affair.
In a statement, the accusers’ attorneys said the takeaway from the report is that “although Ken Paxton remains under active federal investigation, the people who still work for Paxton say he did nothing wrong.”
“Notably, whoever in Paxton’s office wrote this report was not willing to put their name on it. Of course, the one-sided internal report is full of half-truths, outright lies, and glaring omissions,” they said.
Paxton, a Republican, is running for a third term as attorney general in 2022. He has already drawn two primary challengers who are making the allegations of wrongdoing central in their campaigns to oust him.
In a separate matter, Paxton was indicted in 2015 and has been facing three felony charges since then for allegedly defrauding investors in a McKinney tech startup. He has pleaded not guilty but not gone to trial in that case.
