Court ruling suggests recent activity in federal investigation of Ken Paxton

By Jasper Scherer, The Texas Tribune

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A federal appeals court last week rejected an unnamed Texas agency’s attempt to withhold records and shield its employees from appearing before a grand jury in a federal investigation that appears to be targeting Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The ruling appears to be the first major sign that federal officials are still investigating Paxton after he was impeached and subsequently acquitted by the Legislature last year over charges of bribery and abuse of office.

In a June 20 opinion, the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a decision from the lower Western District of Texas, which found that the state agency could not use attorney-client privilege to withhold evidence from a Department of Justice inquiry into “alleged wrongdoing by senior Agency personnel.” The appeals court also cleared the way for two senior agency employees to testify before a grand jury on July 2.

The opinion does not identify the agency. But it refers to a years-long FBI investigation and notes dates and details that line up with a sealed federal case probing allegations from Paxton’s former top deputies. In October 2020, those deputies reported to federal authorities that the attorney general allegedly took bribes to benefit a friend and political donor, Austin real estate developer Nate Paul.