Ken Paxton whistleblower lawsuit is not over: attorney

AUSTIN, Texas - The whistleblower lawsuit against Ken Paxton is not over, says the attorney representing his former employees.

In a court filing, Paxton says he will not contest allegations in a lawsuit filed against him by four former employees who reported him to the FBI. A motion was filed Thursday requesting a final judgment in the case.

The first page of the 474-page filing by Texas AG Ken Paxton in the lawsuit filed by four of his former employees

The whistleblowers, Blake Brickman, Ryan Vassar, Mark Penley and David Maxwell, claimed that Paxton abused the power of his office to help himself and political donor Nate Paul, and that they were unjustly terminated for reporting the attorney general to the FBI.

On Thursday, the Attorney General’s Office issued a statement that it "has put an end to the plaintiffs’ long-running political stunt."

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Whistleblower attorney Tom Nesbitt told FOX 7 Austin that "this is but another desperate stunt by Ken Paxton to try to avoid a court order compelling him to answer questions about his grimy behavior."

Last month. Paxton and several of his top aides were ordered to take part in depositions as part of the civil case.

Full statement from OAG:

"Last year, Attorney General Paxton was fully exonerated by the state legislature following an impeachment trial that was engineered by his political enemies. Now, in the best interests of the State of Texas, the Office of the Attorney General is moving on from an employment lawsuit against the agency by four employees that presents the same issues brought against Attorney General Paxton in the impeachment trial. The OAG has made the determination that these bad-faith efforts to prolong legal proceedings are an unjustifiable waste of taxpayer resources and an intolerable distraction that risks compromising critical state business."

Attorney General Ken Paxton released the following statement regarding ending the litigation with former employees.

"The OAG chose to settle this case last year, with the full participation of the plaintiffs and their attorneys. But the plaintiffs backed out of that settlement after I was fully acquitted. Instead of moving on with terms mutually agreeable to both sides, these rogue former employees disavowed their own settlement and escalated their crusade against me. It has become increasingly clear their objective is not to resolve an employment lawsuit but to sabotage my leadership and this agency, ultimately aiming to undermine Texas as the nation’s leader against the federal government’s unlawful policies. Further, whether a verdict will be funded in whole, in part, or not at all would be determined entirely by the Legislature, which has expressed its own negative opinion about the strength of the plaintiffs’ case by explicitly refusing to use taxpayer dollars to fund the plaintiffs’ disproven claims.

For these reasons, today, my office acted to end this wasteful litigation by filing an amended answer that—consistent with the previous decision to settle this case—will enable the trial court to enter a final judgment without any further litigation. By taking this action, the OAG has put an end to the plaintiffs’ long-running political stunt and re-committed the entirety of agency expertise and resources to our urgent legal initiatives, including our era-defining immigration lawsuits against the Biden Administration. At a time when President Biden is attempting to confiscate Texas state parks and destroy border barriers to ensure a continuous flow of illegal immigration—issues the OAG is currently litigating—I will not allow our focus to waver from defending the rights of the people of Texas and leading the nation’s many fights against unconstitutional federal overreach. Texas’s sovereignty and America’s future are at risk. The stakes have never been higher. I will not allow my office to be distracted by these disgruntled former employees and their self-serving sideshow.

I was re-elected to a third term as Texas Attorney General to uphold law and order and aggressively defend Texans’ rights against the Biden Administration’s increasingly troubling and consequential violations of the United States Constitution. I will not allow these former employees to deter me from doing the job that voters elected me to do. For these reasons, we have moved to end this litigation and eliminate the distractions associated with it."

FOX 4 Dallas contributed to this report.