Newly unsealed deposition transcripts obtained by the Wall Street Journal revealed that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton admitted under oath to violating attorney-client privilege by handing over data from a former client to a plaintiff suing them.
This comes as Paxton fights in a heated runoff for the GOP Senate nomination against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, who trails him in most polls. President Donald Trump was previously considering an endorsement of Cornyn to bail him out, but now appears not to be interested in doing so.
“The deposition marked a rare instance of Paxton being made to answer questions under oath,” noted the report. “It remained effectively sealed when the case’s judge, a donor to Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, delayed ruling on its sealing for more than four years until the case was settled in 2023.”
One of the details from the deposition, reported the Journal, is that he confessed to handing over information that he had an ethical obligation to keep confidential.
“Charles Loper III, trustee of Paxton’s blind trust, sued Byron Cook, a former business associate, claiming fraud by Unity Resources, an energy investment company. Paxton wasn’t a defendant in the suit, but was Unity’s former lawyer, board member and investor,” said the report. In the deposition, “Attorneys pressed Paxton on having given Unity records to his own attorney Mitch Little — who was also representing Loper in suing Unity — but not to Unity itself. ‘I’m sure I did,’ Paxton said of giving the communications to Little, saying that he had done so to see if they were privileged.”
“Legal ethics experts declined to read the deposition because it is under a protective order, but said giving former client communications to anyone — especially someone suing the client — is a violation of attorney-client privilege,” said the report. “And, records belong to the client and can’t be withheld, they said.”
Paxton campaign spokesman Nick Maddux denied the report, saying, “The Wall Street Journal has spent the last year bending over backward to be an extension of the Cornyn campaign, but this one takes the cake.”
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