The anti-conservatives and Left are boiling over the dropping of charges levied against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2015 over an investment recommendation. Their backup plan is to talk about the circumstances of the charges being dropped as if it were some kind of plea bargain that shows Paxton admits he did something wrong. That is not true.
The charges from the 2015 indictment were completely dropped. This happened once the hired-gun special prosecutors were faced with actually having to take the case to trial after eight years of them keeping it out of court so that the pending charges could be used as a political weapon against Paxton.
One of the two special prosecutors, Kent Schaffer, withdrew from the case once an actual trial date was set by a district judge in Harris County. He admitted to the Houston Chronicle that the case would have been difficult to win in court – this after he spent almost a decade maneuvering the case into a Democrat dominated venue.
“To not fill a form out from the state because you thought your federal form was sufficient? And it was (sufficient) up until three months ago?” Schaffer said, referring to the charge for failing to register as an investment adviser. “You know, some jurors may feel kind of like look, nobody got harmed. You didn’t do it correctly. He did pay a civil penalty. He’s been punished enough,” the Houston Chronicle reported.
It was never a legitimate case.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
When it came time to put up or shut up, the remaining and previously loudmouthed special prosecutor Brian Wice, offered Paxton a deal to end the near-decade-long ordeal. It’s not a plea deal, not something the court acts upon, but simply a way to drop all charges and let the matter end. Paxton, given huge legal fees and life disruption for 9-years would have been unwise to turn the agreement down.
I have covered this matter in detail since charges were levied in a political campaign in 2014 and after the indictment of August, 2015.
The Leftist group Texans for Public Justice was certainly a player in this abuse of the criminal justice system now often called lawfare, but the issue was surely pushed by political enemies, not just of Paxton personally, but from the anti-conservative wing of Republicanism in Texas.
In 2015, lawyer Tony McDonald reported in the Texas Scorecard: “In the Paxton case, Texans for Public Justice first attempted to get their friends in the Travis County DA’s office to indict the Attorney General. When the Travis County DA’s office refused… TPJ maneuvered to have the case referred to Collin County. Once the case was back in Paxton’s home district, his opponents caused the Collin County DA to be recused, and for special prosecutors to be appointed.”
There is an almost limitless amount information relating to how the dirty war against Paxton was waged by the non-conservative power players in the Texas GOP as a reaction to their runoff defeat for Attorney General in which Paxton bested Dallas-power-crowd member, and then state representative, Dan Branch. It also goes back further to when, as a state representative, Paxton opposed liberal Republican Joe Straus for Texas House speaker which launched Paxton into a state senate seat.
On 4 August 2015, lawyer McDonald well summed up the indictment against Paxton:
“Measuring just two pages apiece, the three indictments allege the following as felony acts:
“That Paxton referred two legal clients to an investment advisor in his building (and received a referral fee from that advisor) but did not file paperwork beforehand to register as an “investment advisor representative.”
“That Paxton encouraged State Rep. Byron Cook (R–Corsicana) to invest in a McKinney-based company, Servergy, Inc., but didn’t tell Cook that he was receiving compensation from the company or disclose that he was not personally invested in the company.
“That Paxton encouraged Joel Hochberg, a video game developer from Florida who is associated with Cook, to invest in Servergy as well.
“Joel Hochberg is a long-time Cook associate who ran the video game development company Rare Ltd. in the 1990s. Hochberg created the popular video game “Battletoads,” which Cook’s company, Tradewest, published.
“That’s it. The prosecutors have alleged that Paxton didn’t file some paperwork with the state, and failed to mention to Byron Cook and Byron’s Battletoads buddy that he wasn’t personally invested in Servergy. For those seemingly innocent acts, Cook and the prosecutors want the people of Texas to rip Paxton away from his wife and children and lock him in a cage for the rest of his life.”
And as a side note: “Cook waited four years to complain that Paxton supposedly violated securities laws by encouraging him to invest in a McKinney-based company, Servergy, Inc., without explaining he was receiving compensation from the company or disclosing that he did not personally invest. That’s it — Cook is a wealthy and sophisticated investor who now claims he required information that was of such little importance at the time that he apparently didn’t bother to ask about it. Now, Cook wants Paxton to be convicted of a first-degree felony,” wrote Tim Dunn in a 2015 piece in the Midland Reporter-Telegram.
The actors prosecuting the war against Paxton used their influence to get the feds to prosecute Paxton on the same matter, but in 2017 those charges, filed as civil charges with a much lower standard of proof required, were thrown out by U.S. District Court Judge Amos L. Mazzant III.
The actors prosecuting the war against Paxton used their influence to get the feds to prosecute Paxton on the same matter, but in 2017 those charges, filed as civil charges with a much lower standard of proof required, were thrown out by U.S. District Court Judge Amos L. Mazzant III.
The Dallas Morning News reported in May of 2017 that Judge Mazzant said “the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission failed to show it could prove he [Paxton] defrauded investors in a McKinney technology startup by not disclosing he was being paid a commission off their investments.”
“The judge also ruled the federal agency did not show Paxton needed to be registered as a securities “broker-dealer” while he funneled these potential investors to the startup because [he] never handled their money himself.
“The question before the court is not whether Paxton should have disclosed his compensation arrangement, but whether Paxton had a legal duty under federal securities law to disclose,” Mazzant wrote. “As alleged, Paxton’s conduct simply does not give rise to liability under the federal securities laws as they exist today.”
But the federal slap down didn’t stop special prosecutors Wise and Schaffer. They continued the state case against Paxton and made prejudiced statements about Paxton in the press, while surely knowing that their case was a perversion of justice.
When the indictments first came out in August of 2015, Texas Lawyer, not a conservative news source to be certain, reported that former federal prosecutor and securities lawyer Bill Mateja said that failure to register is usually considered a “de minimus” violation and handled as a civil matter. In that interview Mateja also explained serious problems with the other two charges.
Quoted in the story by Texas Lawyer was San Antonio attorney Cynthia Orr who practices in the area of securities law violations. Orr said the allegation against Paxton was “strange.”
“How would it be material to an investor that [Paxton] had not invested,” said Orr. “I would attack it. … How would it make someone invest, where they would not invest had they known?”
During the over eight years of the legal saga, Paxton’s team tried to get to trial many times but the media often reported that he, Paxton, was using his power to avoid going to trial. It was in fact, mostly actions of special prosecutors Wise and Schaffer that kept delaying the issue coming to trial for a fair hearing of the facts.
Since when in America do we move trials to help the state, the prosecution, have a better shot at conviction?!
Wise and Schaffer turned American justice upside down by working full effort to prevent Paxton from having a trial by jury of his peers in his home, Collin County, and instead getting the case moved to a venue where they would get a Paxton political enemy as a judge and a jury statistically likely to be unfriendly.
Since when in America do we move trials to help the state, the prosecution, have a better shot at conviction?!
That is something we only do for defendants to ensure they get a fair trial not biased by jurors who have been inundated with local media related to a case. Those actions by Wice and Schaffer stand alone to demonstrate there was never a legitimate case against Paxton and that they were more concerned with damaging the man than with obtaining justice from a jury of the man’s peers.
There are many other odd elements to this disgusting saga.
There is the leaking of the sealed indictment to the press; a Dallas lawyer who contacted grand jury members at their homes lobbying them to take action against Paxton; there is the years-long fight by special prosecutors to get paid an hourly rate massively beyond the Collin County official pay scale for outside counsel, and; there are all of the behind the scenes political maneuvers from Austin insiders like Speaker Dade Phelan which led to the botched impeachment effort against Paxton last year.
What I find most interesting is that in the end, it appears to me that the two special prosecutors, both reportedly very well-off men, were more interested in their pay for the dirty sideline prosecuting job than in actually getting the case before a jury.
Was there ever a legitimate case against Ken Paxton?
The charges from the 2015 indictment were completely dropped. This happened once the hired-gun special prosecutors were faced with actually having to take the case to trial after eight years of them keeping it out of court so that the pending charges could be used as a political weapon against Paxton.
One of the two special prosecutors, Kent Schaffer, withdrew from the case once an actual trial date was set by a district judge in Harris County. He admitted to the Houston Chronicle that the case would have been difficult to win in court – this after he spent almost a decade maneuvering the case into a Democrat dominated venue.
“To not fill a form out from the state because you thought your federal form was sufficient? And it was (sufficient) up until three months ago?” Schaffer said, referring to the charge for failing to register as an investment adviser. “You know, some jurors may feel kind of like look, nobody got harmed. You didn’t do it correctly. He did pay a civil penalty. He’s been punished enough,” the Houston Chronicle reported.
It was never a legitimate case.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
When it came time to put up or shut up, the remaining and previously loudmouthed special prosecutor Brian Wice, offered Paxton a deal to end the near-decade-long ordeal. It’s not a plea deal, not something the court acts upon, but simply a way to drop all charges and let the matter end. Paxton, given huge legal fees and life disruption for 9-years would have been unwise to turn the agreement down.
I have covered this matter in detail since charges were levied in a political campaign in 2014 and after the indictment of August, 2015.
The Leftist group Texans for Public Justice was certainly a player in this abuse of the criminal justice system now often called lawfare, but the issue was surely pushed by political enemies, not just of Paxton personally, but from the anti-conservative wing of Republicanism in Texas.
In 2015, lawyer Tony McDonald reported in the Texas Scorecard: “In the Paxton case, Texans for Public Justice first attempted to get their friends in the Travis County DA’s office to indict the Attorney General. When the Travis County DA’s office refused… TPJ maneuvered to have the case referred to Collin County. Once the case was back in Paxton’s home district, his opponents caused the Collin County DA to be recused, and for special prosecutors to be appointed.”
There is an almost limitless amount information relating to how the dirty war against Paxton was waged by the non-conservative power players in the Texas GOP as a reaction to their runoff defeat for Attorney General in which Paxton bested Dallas-power-crowd member, and then state representative, Dan Branch. It also goes back further to when, as a state representative, Paxton opposed liberal Republican Joe Straus for Texas House speaker which launched Paxton into a state senate seat.
On 4 August 2015, lawyer McDonald well summed up the indictment against Paxton:
“Measuring just two pages apiece, the three indictments allege the following as felony acts:
“Joel Hochberg is a long-time Cook associate who ran the video game development company Rare Ltd. in the 1990s. Hochberg created the popular video game “Battletoads,” which Cook’s company, Tradewest, published.
“That’s it. The prosecutors have alleged that Paxton didn’t file some paperwork with the state, and failed to mention to Byron Cook and Byron’s Battletoads buddy that he wasn’t personally invested in Servergy. For those seemingly innocent acts, Cook and the prosecutors want the people of Texas to rip Paxton away from his wife and children and lock him in a cage for the rest of his life.”
And as a side note: “Cook waited four years to complain that Paxton supposedly violated securities laws by encouraging him to invest in a McKinney-based company, Servergy, Inc., without explaining he was receiving compensation from the company or disclosing that he did not personally invest. That’s it — Cook is a wealthy and sophisticated investor who now claims he required information that was of such little importance at the time that he apparently didn’t bother to ask about it. Now, Cook wants Paxton to be convicted of a first-degree felony,” wrote Tim Dunn in a 2015 piece in the Midland Reporter-Telegram.
The actors prosecuting the war against Paxton used their influence to get the feds to prosecute Paxton on the same matter, but in 2017 those charges, filed as civil charges with a much lower standard of proof required, were thrown out by U.S. District Court Judge Amos L. Mazzant III.
The actors prosecuting the war against Paxton used their influence to get the feds to prosecute Paxton on the same matter, but in 2017 those charges, filed as civil charges with a much lower standard of proof required, were thrown out by U.S. District Court Judge Amos L. Mazzant III.
The Dallas Morning News reported in May of 2017 that Judge Mazzant said “the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission failed to show it could prove he [Paxton] defrauded investors in a McKinney technology startup by not disclosing he was being paid a commission off their investments.”
“The judge also ruled the federal agency did not show Paxton needed to be registered as a securities “broker-dealer” while he funneled these potential investors to the startup because [he] never handled their money himself.
“The question before the court is not whether Paxton should have disclosed his compensation arrangement, but whether Paxton had a legal duty under federal securities law to disclose,” Mazzant wrote. “As alleged, Paxton’s conduct simply does not give rise to liability under the federal securities laws as they exist today.”
But the federal slap down didn’t stop special prosecutors Wise and Schaffer. They continued the state case against Paxton and made prejudiced statements about Paxton in the press, while surely knowing that their case was a perversion of justice.
When the indictments first came out in August of 2015, Texas Lawyer, not a conservative news source to be certain, reported that former federal prosecutor and securities lawyer Bill Mateja said that failure to register is usually considered a “de minimus” violation and handled as a civil matter. In that interview Mateja also explained serious problems with the other two charges.
Quoted in the story by Texas Lawyer was San Antonio attorney Cynthia Orr who practices in the area of securities law violations. Orr said the allegation against Paxton was “strange.”
“How would it be material to an investor that [Paxton] had not invested,” said Orr. “I would attack it. … How would it make someone invest, where they would not invest had they known?”
During the over eight years of the legal saga, Paxton’s team tried to get to trial many times but the media often reported that he, Paxton, was using his power to avoid going to trial. It was in fact, mostly actions of special prosecutors Wise and Schaffer that kept delaying the issue coming to trial for a fair hearing of the facts.
Since when in America do we move trials to help the state, the prosecution, have a better shot at conviction?!
Wise and Schaffer turned American justice upside down by working full effort to prevent Paxton from having a trial by jury of his peers in his home, Collin County, and instead getting the case moved to a venue where they would get a Paxton political enemy as a judge and a jury statistically likely to be unfriendly.
Since when in America do we move trials to help the state, the prosecution, have a better shot at conviction?!
That is something we only do for defendants to ensure they get a fair trial not biased by jurors who have been inundated with local media related to a case. Those actions by Wice and Schaffer stand alone to demonstrate there was never a legitimate case against Paxton and that they were more concerned with damaging the man than with obtaining justice from a jury of the man’s peers.
There are many other odd elements to this disgusting saga.
There is the leaking of the sealed indictment to the press; a Dallas lawyer who contacted grand jury members at their homes lobbying them to take action against Paxton; there is the years-long fight by special prosecutors to get paid an hourly rate massively beyond the Collin County official pay scale for outside counsel, and; there are all of the behind the scenes political maneuvers from Austin insiders like Speaker Dade Phelan which led to the botched impeachment effort against Paxton last year.
What I find most interesting is that in the end, it appears to me that the two special prosecutors, both reportedly very well-off men, were more interested in their pay for the dirty sideline prosecuting job than in actually getting the case before a jury.
More: At this link you will find a list of news stories on this matter going back to 2014. You can hear me explain the politics behind the issue at this link.