Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Secures Legal Fund Donations From 'Family Friends'

AUSTIN, TX — As it relates to covering his legal bills, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton gets by with a little help from his friends, according to various media reports.

Coming up on two years in defending himself against state securities fraud charges, Paxton has accepted nearly $220,000 for his legal defense fund from "family friends," the Texas Tribune reported. Those friends are exempt from state bribery laws banning elected officials from getting gifts from people subject to their authority, as he conveyed in a newly-released financial disclosure statement.

Those donations gathered in 2016 are in addition to more than $329,000 Paxton accepted for the same cause in 2015, the Tribune reported.

Last year's biggest contribution came from Steven and Carrie Parsons of Dallas, who chipped in $75,000, according to the records. The couple also donated thousands of dollars to Paxton's political campaign, the Tribune found.

Apparently, Paxton has friends in far places. Alfred and Janet Gleason of Green Valley, Ariz., made the second-biggest legal fund donation in 2016 in the amount of $50,000, according to the filing. The Tribune found another $10,000 for Paxtons's legal coffers that came from Ray and Ann Huffines. It's worth noting (as the Tribune noted) that Ray's brother is State Sen. Don Huffines, a Dallas Republican.

Given the wide reach of his authority, Paxton cited an "independent relationship" exception for most of his contributions, allowing gifts from family members and those "independent" of an officeholder's "official status," the Tribune reported.

In his filing, Paxton also said another part of the legal code allowed him to accept two gifts from out-of-state donors, the Tribune reported: “All gifts for legal defense were conferred and accepted on account of a personal, professional, or business relationship independent of General Paxton's official status,” Paxton’s disclosure form states.

All told, 15 generous donors contributed to Paxton's legal defense fund last year, the Tribune reported, and an entity calling itself Annual Fund Inc. chipping in another ten grand. Bloomberg describes the Virginia-based fund as one that primarily gives to a group called Citizens for the Republic, chaired by conservative media personality Laura Ingraham, the Tribune noted.

In his filing, Paxton cited another legal exemption as cover for his ability to accept out-of-state gifts from the Annual Fund and the Gleasons. But the Tribune noted that the safeguard is in question, as the Texas Ethics Commission last year narrowly voted against issuing an opinion that would have allowed the practice of raising legal defense funds outside of Texas.

Craig McDonald, director of the liberal watchdog group Texans for Public Justice, suggested Paxton was “exploiting” the gift loophole: “The Attorney General is supposed to enforce the law, not stretch it. It's good to have 'friends' when you need help to stay out of jail,” McDonald told the Tribune via email.

Paxton is accused of selling shares in a high-tech firm to investors without disclosing that he was being paid by the company in violation of Securities and Exchange Commission laws. SEC investigators accuse Paxton of persuading five investors to pony up $840,000 into Servergy, without confirming the claims of the company's founder, William Mapp, related to the sale of its data servers and their technological capabilities, the Texas Tribune previously reported. One month later, Paxton received 100,000 shares of stock in the company.

Paxton subsequently in 2015 was arrested, fingerprinted and photographed for the alleged violations, which took place during the time he was a state legislator. He was indicted by a Collin County grand jury and turned himself in to the county jail in his McKinney hometown, evading reporters by entering through a side entrance, as numerous media outlets reported. He was released some 20 minutes later after posting three personal recognizance bonds totaling $35,000.

>>> Read the full story at Texas Tribune

Ken Paxton booking photo via Collin County Jail records