Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released a statement today denying accusations against him of bribery, abuse of office and more that surfaced over the weekend after the Austin American-Statesman reported that seven of Paxton’s senior OAG employees had asked authorities to investigate Paxton.

“The Texas attorney general’s office was referred a case from Travis County regarding allegations of crimes relating to the FBI, other government agencies and individuals,” Paxton said in a statement this afternoon (Monday, Oct. 5). “My obligation as attorney general is to conduct an investigation upon such referral. Because employees from my office impeded the investigation and because I knew Nate Paul, I ultimately decided to hire an outside independent prosecutor to make his own independent determination. Despite the effort by rogue employees and their false allegations I will continue to seek justice in Texas and will not be resigning.”

Paxton is already under indictment, dating back to 2015, on federal securities fraud charges.

The seven employees who are accusing Paxton notified the AG last week by text that they would be contacting authorities with their allegations and then sent a letter, signed by then-first assistant AG Jeff Mateer, to the OAG’s director of human resources, notifying them about the allegations. Mateer turned in his resignation late Friday, Oct. 2, before the allegations became public.

Earlier today, Paxton’s office released a statement announcing that Paxton had appointed Brent Webster to replace Mateer as first assistant attorney general.

— Tammye Nash