In 2015 Paxton was accused of defrauding investors when he solicited investments for a McKinney tech firm whose stock he was being paid to promote. Authorities claim Paxton failed to disclose he was being paid for the service.
Although the case ends without a plea deal in which Paxton admits any guilt, the seemingly always under-fire politician doesn't escape this nearly decade-long legal drama without sustaining a good bit of punishment.
According to investigative reporter Tony Plohetski of the Austin American-Statesman, the sitting attorney general will “perform 100 hours of community service in Collin County, take 15 hours of legal ethics education and pay a restitution of about $300,000. At the end of 18 months, the charges will be dismissed.”
Plohetski added in a later post on X that Paxton will have to pay the restitution from his personal funds. This contrasts with how Paxton asked the state in 2023 to cover the $3.3 million settlement he made with whistleblowers who had accused him of corruption. The Legislature refused.UPDATE: Paxton perform 100 hours of community service in Collin County, take 15 hours of legal ethics education and pay a restitution of about $300,000. At the end of 18 months, the charges will be dismissed. https://t.co/55S483gcdO
— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) March 26, 2024
Paxton’s deal arrived only three weeks before he was set to stand trial on the three charges, which could have resulted in a sentence of life in prison had he been found guilty. For those keeping score, this is yet another major mark in the win column for Paxton, regardless of the penalties he accepted.
In September, Paxton attracted national attention when the Texas House voted to impeach him for a range of corruption and bribery allegations. Following a summer of discontent among the state Republican Party, Paxton was reinstated into office by a Senate that voted closely along party lines to keep him in power despite two weeks worth of insider eyewitness testimony explicitly pointing to his alleged misdeeds.
And in the March primaries, Paxton again found reason to take a victory lap when a good number of the candidates he vocally supported in challenges to House incumbents who had voted to impeach him either won their Super Tuesday races or forced runoff elections.
And speaking of the whistleblowers, Paxton still faces the lawsuit brought against him by four of his former top aides who claim he fired them in retaliation for reporting him to the FBI. The whistleblowers were among those who testified against him in the Senate impeachment trial. As of now, it seems Paxton has been getting his way in that matter too.
Before he was to sit for a deposition in the whistleblower case, the state Supreme Court halted depositions after Paxton continued to claim that once he filed a motion to accept a final judgement in the case, depositions were no longer necessary.
