Texas AG’s $100K gift came despite agency rules
Documents show the $100,000 that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accepted from the head of a company his office was investigating came despite internal agency rules that prohibit such gifts.
Ethics and legal experts say Paxton’s acceptance of the money to help pay for his criminal defense on felony securities fraud charges wasn’t a clear violation of Texas’ loose ethics laws.
But internal policies in the Texas attorney general’s office, obtained by The Associated Press, say agency employees “shall never” take gifts from an entity “the employee knows is being investigated” by the office. Last year, Paxton accepted the gift from Preferred Imaging founder James Webb, whose company was under investigation at the time for Medicaid fraud.
Webb contributed nearly one third of the $330,000 that Paxton, a Republican, reported raising in 2015 to help pay his personal legal bills. He was indicted six months after taking office last year and has pleaded not guilty.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/texas-ags-100k-gift-came-despite-agency-rules/nr57G/
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