Unexplained Caribbean and European trips that cost taxpayers more than $90,000. A $600 sports coat paid for by an event organizer. A $45 office Christmas cake taken as his own.
These are among the perks that Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ‘s former employees say he reveled in while using his office in ways that now have him facing a federal criminal investigation and potential ouster over allegations of corruption.
Paxton’s impeachment trial that starts Tuesday covers years of highly publicized scandal, criminal charges and whistleblower accounts from his inner circle.
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What kind of scum bag do you have to be to get Texas politicians to impeach you for corruption?
Ken Paxton…. Get rekt.
He made the mistake of being corrupt AND a huge asshole to everyone. The corruption wasn’t the problem.
A $45 office Christmas cake taken as his own.
Now that’s just unbelievably miserly. What tiny fraction of his income must that be?
His income’s listed in the article.
- The cake: 45/153000 = 0.0294117647%
- The license plate: 12.5/153000 = 0.0081699346%
His wife is described as having an income well below poverty level; including it would not change the numbers significantly.
I saw the income, I’m just bad at math.
Paxton spent two months flying to cities in the Caribbean and Europe. It’s unclear who paid for Paxton’s travel, but the trips cost taxpayers a combined $91,000 for his security detail.
…
A few months later, Paxton was in Qatar for the 2022 World Cup — a trip that does not appear in his filings or security records. Another Republican state attorney general, Sean Reyes of Utah, also attended and disclosed through a spokesman that Qatar’s government paid his expenses without saying how much they were.
Wow, seems like this guy is qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice.
Jeff Norwood, a Paxton spokesman, said Paxton paid his own way to the tournament and attended without state police security.
Sure he did. Dude won’t pay $45 for a cake but he paid for this.
Party of FiScAL ReSPonSiBiLiTY
I’m sure he thought his spending was very fiscally responsible just other people disagreed with him.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
These are among the perks that Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ‘s former employees say he reveled in while using his office in ways that now have him facing a federal criminal investigation and potential ouster over allegations of corruption.
Paxton’s impeachment trial that starts Tuesday covers years of highly publicized scandal, criminal charges and whistleblower accounts from his inner circle.
But records obtained by The Associated Press, interviews with former aides and a review of thousands of legal filings reveal other ways in which Paxton allegedly reaped the benefits of being one of Texas’ most powerful figures.
“He always cared about what trip he was going on, who was taking him to dinner,” James Blake Brickman, one of Paxton’s former deputies, told investigators leading the impeachment in March, according to a transcript.
Bill Miller, a veteran Austin lobbyist, said the accusations that have engulfed Paxton for years “color the perception of him” but don’t resemble the man he’s long called a friend.
David Maxell, the attorney general’s former head of law enforcement and one of eight deputies who reported him to the FBI, told investigators that Paxton once bought a $600 sports coat from a hotel store while at a conference and billed it to the event’s organizer.
The original article contains 978 words, the summary contains 210 words. Saved 79%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
