{"id":44890,"date":"2020-10-25T20:22:11","date_gmt":"2020-10-25T20:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=44890"},"modified":"2020-10-25T20:22:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-25T20:22:11","slug":"paxton-strikes-back-at-whistleblowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=44890","title":{"rendered":"Paxton strikes back at whistleblowers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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(Photo by Erich Schlegel\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By JOHN KANELIS \/ johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Let’s do a little math, shall we?<\/p>\n

Seven top aides to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have called for a federal investigation into what they allege is corrupt practices with the AG’s office, including bribery.<\/p>\n

Two of the seven were fired; two others were put on “leave.” Two plus two equals four, correct?<\/p>\n

And yet a spokesman for the embattled AG says the actions taken have nothing to do with the complaint the top legal eagles have filed against Paxton. Where I come from, it looks for all the world as if the firings and the placing on leave have everything<\/em>\u00a0 to do with the whistleblower complaint.<\/p>\n

Paxton ought to resign, per the request from U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a fellow Republican from Austin. There’s no way on Earth that the state’s chief law enforcement officer — who’s awaiting trial on securities fraud charges stemming from a Collin County grand jury indictment — can serve while having these storm clouds brewing over his head.<\/p>\n

But the AG is hanging on.<\/p>\n

Shameful, I am telling you.<\/p>\n

As the Texas Tribune<\/a> has reported:<\/p>\n

The aides, who represented a large share of the agency\u2019s most senior staff, alerted law enforcement and then agency human resources that they believed Paxton was using the power of his office to serve a political donor, Austin real estate developer Nate Paul. The agency had taken the unusual step of weighing in on a lawsuit that involved Paul, and Paxton personally hired an outside investigator \u2014 in a process aides called highly suspect \u2014 to vet the donor\u2019s complaints<\/em><\/p>\n

Ian Prior, a spokesperson for Paxton’s campaign, denied Friday that the personnel decisions had anything to do with their accusations against Paxton.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Any suggestion that this has to do with the whistleblower claims is false and demonstrates an unfamiliarity with the facts,” Prior said. “There are a number of reasons for these separations that we cannot discuss at this time.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Ken Paxton is unfit for the office of Texas attorney general.<\/p>\n\n

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By JOHN KANELIS \/ johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com Let’s do a little math, shall we? Seven top aides to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have called for a federal investigation into what they allege is corrupt practices with the AG’s office, including bribery. Two of the seven were fired; two others were put on “leave.” Two plus two … Continue reading Paxton strikes back at whistleblowers<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[2652,4177,4581,9535],"class_list":["post-44890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news","tag-ken-paxton","tag-securities-fraud","tag-texas-ags-office","tag-whistleblowers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44891,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44890\/revisions\/44891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}