Paxton didn’t trust law enforcement after securities fraud indictment, whistleblower testifies

The historic impeachment trial of suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton is underway in the Texas Senate. He faces 16 articles of impeachment that accuse him of misusing the powers of the attorney general’s office to help his friend and donor Nate Paul, an Austin real estate investor who was under federal investigation. Paxton pleaded not guilty to all impeachment articles on the trial’s first day. His defense attorneys have vowed to disprove the accusations and said they will present evidence showing they are based on assumptions, not facts.

Here’s one recent excerpt:

A Ken Paxton whistleblower shed light Monday on the suspended attorney general’s distrust of law enforcement, suggesting it dates back to his 2015 indictment on securities fraud charges.

The whistleblower, Mark Penley, testified that Paxton’s skepticism of law enforcement became clear in the fall of 2020. At the time, Paxton was agitating for Penley to continue investigating conspiratorial allegations that Paxton’s friend and donor, Nate Paul, was making against law enforcement agencies. Penley said he increasingly resisted because Paul and his attorney were not cooperating, among other reasons.

In one contentious meeting, Penley recalled, Paxton told him, “You don’t know what it feels like to be the target of a corrupt law enforcement investigation.”

Paxton has been fighting the securities fraud charges for most of his tenure, since first winning election as attorney general in 2014. A trial is expected to finally begin early next year, though both sides have agreed to wait until after the impeachment trial to set a date.