Home Care In Paxton, TX

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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.

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The case at issue in the Fifth Circuit opinion also remains sealed. But the opinion refers to earlier orders that seem to align with those issued in Paxton’s case, including an August 2021 decision that largely refused the agency’s attempt to limit the scope of the investigation.

Last month, the Texas Newsroom published an August 2021 order from U.S. District Court Judge David Ezra, of the Western District, that appears to be the same one referenced in the Fifth Circuit’s latest opinion. For example, the 2021 Western District ruling notes that investigators in Paxton’s case were allowed to take “additional investigative steps” to seek “four categories of information,” including any “actions or communications contemplated or undertaken” by Paxton or his senior staff to “interfere in or obstruct” the federal investigation. The Fifth Circuit’s opinion refers to the same language, including the same “four categories of information.”

Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ezra’s 2021 order states that the grand jury investigation “concerns Paxton’s alleged use of his official position and power” to benefit Paul, “as well as Paxton's purported efforts to thwart” the probe. The order also says federal officials are looking into “several potential federal crimes involving Ken Paxton,” including obstruction of justice, retaliation against witnesses, bribery, honest services wire fraud and “conspiracy to commit the four aforementioned offenses.”

The Fifth Circuit opinion, penned by Trump-appointed judge Cory T. Wilson, notes that federal officials are still looking into any moves by the agency to “interfere in or obstruct” the federal investigation. Such communications, Wilson wrote, are not covered by the usual “seal of secrecy” between lawyer and client.

Wilson’s opinion also states that the lower court has “reiterated several times” that it agrees with Justice Department officials who contend there is “reason to believe that evidence of federal crimes alleged in [DOJ’s] motion is in the possession, custody, or control of current and former employees” of the state agency.

Wilson, in his opinion, wrote, “we cannot say that the district court erred in its determination on this point.”

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Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and members of the Biden Administration to contest LGBTQ+ workforce protections.

The guidance, released last month, states that denying an employee accommodations for their gender identity, such as prohibiting an employee to use the bathroom of their gender identity, is unlawful workplace harassment. The guidance isn’t legally enforced and instead it serves to distinguish what constitutes harassment under the EEOC.

The lawsuit filed on Tuesday argues that the EEOC specifically targeted Texas with its new guidance, as some Texas employers do not have to comply with federal policies meant to prohibit discrimination. Paxton claims the guidance would force Texas to reevaluate its agencies, causing “irreparable harm” to state finances and sovereignty, and redefine “sex” under the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“Yet again the Biden Administration is trying to circumvent the democratic process by issuing sweeping mandates from the desks of bureaucrats that would fundamentally reshape American law,” Paxton said in a statement. “Texas will not stand by while Biden ignores court orders forbidding such actions and we will hold the federal government accountable at every turn.”

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This is Paxton’s 75th lawsuit against the federal government since Biden was inaugurated in January 2021. Paxton has long portrayed himself as the bulwark against Biden’s agenda and has positioned Texas at the forefront of the largest conservative legal battles of the day.

This lawsuit parallels a motion from September 2021 where Paxton sued the Biden administration over a 2021 EEOC guidance that explained the parameters then for gauging harassment and the Supreme Court’s stance on Bostock v. Clayton County, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

A longtime adversary to gender-affirming policy, Paxton claimed the 2021 guidance forced the Biden Administration’s “political agenda” onto Texas. In that case, the U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled in favor of Paxton, concluding that the Biden Administration's protections for LGBTQ+ employees were too extensive.

Paxton filed this lawsuit, like many of his legal challenges, in Amarillo, where one judge hears nearly all cases—Kacsmaryk.

Kacsmaryk was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump as the first judge appointed directly from a religious liberty law firm. Kacsmaryk previously worked at First Liberty, a Plano-based conservative Christian law firm, where he frequently litigated cases involving abortion, contraception and gender identity.

Reporter Eleanor Klibanoff contributed to this story.

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Correction, May 25, 2024 at 10:05 a.m.: A previous version of this story included the incorrect date of President Biden's inauguration; he was inaugurated in January 2021. It also gave the incorrect date of Ken Paxton's lawsuit against the Biden administration over a 2021 EEOC guidance, which was filed in September 2021.

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The Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked Harris County officials from sending financial assistance to needy families under a new program — the day before families were slated to begin receiving the money.

Justices granted Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request Tuesday to halt the payments while a legal fight over the county’s guaranteed income pilot program plays out. About 1,900 households residing in the county’s poorest neighborhoods would receive monthly, no-strings-attached cash payments of $500 — drawn out of $20.5 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds — for 18 months.

“It’s unfortunate the court would take such an extraordinary step to block a program that would help people in Harris County — even temporarily,” Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said in a statement after the ruling.

The program was set to begin Wednesday, though there was some confusion about whether the county had begun distributing the funds ahead of schedule. Minutes before the Supreme Court’s order, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis said on the social media website X that the county had already sent the first round of checks. But Ellis later said that wasn't the case.

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"We were racing to get at least one payment out the door, but unfortunately we were not able to process them before the Supreme Court order came down," Ellis wrote on X. "We will continue to fight to get these 1900 families the support they need and deserve."

Paxton sued the county earlier this month to stop the program, known as Uplift Harris, arguing that it violates a part of the Texas Constitution that says a local government cannot “lend its credit or to grant public money or thing of value” to individuals. Lower courts had denied Paxton’s requests to at least temporarily halt payments under the program.

County officials have defended Uplift Harris, aimed at helping households in the county’s 10 poorest ZIP codes who are living below 200% of the federal poverty line, as a legitimate use of public funds.

Other Texas localities — Austin, San Antonio and El Paso County — have experimented with guaranteed income programs in recent years. Last week, the Austin City Council voted to restart the city’s program, which it piloted in 2022.

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Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press

An appellate judge on Monday denied Attorney General Ken Paxton’s appeal to have Harris County’s Guaranteed Income Program blocked.

On Thursday, 165th District Court Judge Ursula Hall rejected Paxton's claims that the program, which would provide $500 for nearly 2,000 low-income families for 18 months, used public money "in a manner that violates the Texas Constitution." The funding would have come from the American Rescue Plan Act. By Friday, Paxton had appealed the motion.

But on Monday, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee posted on X that the 14th Court of Appeals denied the emergency order.

“To the Texas Supreme Court we go”, Menefee said in his post.

New: An appellate court refused @KenPaxtonTX's emergency attempt to block Harris County's basic income program.

The state will appeal, but we will continue to fight so that people have the resources they need to lift themselves out of poverty.

To the Texas Supreme Court we go pic.twitter.com/oc7Tiz9dXF

— Christian D. Menefee (@CDMenefee) April 22, 2024

Menefee told Houston Public Media that the court’s decision was “very good news.”

“I think what this means is the 14th Court of Appeals said, ‘We don’t buy your argument, Ken Paxton’,” Menefee said. “And they’re setting the stage to allow this program to go into place.”

Menefee said he anticipates that this week Paxton will ask the Texas Supreme Court to block the county from sending out payments for the Guaranteed Income Program.

“At the very latest at the end of the week we will know the Texas Supreme Court’s decision on this request for emergency relief,” he said.

Commissioners Court is still planning for the money to be distributed on Wednesday, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis said.

"Ken Paxton has lost again in his merciless crusade to rob families working hard to make ends meet of critical support through Uplift Harris,” Ellis said in a statement. “1,900 families living under the crushing weight of poverty are expecting to have their lives changed this week, and rest assured, we will send out $500 payments on Wednesday, unless the Texas Supreme Court orders us otherwise."