Ken Paxton's legal issues ramping up as whistleblower civil lawsuit is ongoing

AUSTIN, Texas - There are new courtroom developments involving Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Federal authorities announced new charges against Nate Paul. 

Paul is one of Ken Paxton's political donors and was a key figure in the Attorney General's impeachment trial. 

New wire fraud charges were added to the bank fraud indictment against Paul. That case is part of the accusations of misuse of office by Paxton, made by whistleblowers, which brought about his impeachment by the Texas House. Paxton allegedly wanted his staff to help Paul fend off the federal investigation. 

Paxton was later acquitted, on a party line vote, in the Texas Senate.

The whistleblower civil lawsuit is still going on. This week, Paxton got a judge in Burnet County to issue a restraining order in that case, which is being tried in Austin. 

The Burnet County judge temporarily blocked an attempt by the whistleblowers to get Paxton to give a deposition. FOX 7 spoke to constitutional law attorney David Coale about how these separate cases are tangled together. 

RELATED: Businessman linked to Ken Paxton impeachment faces new wire fraud charges

"This is kind of the first wave of probably several of these things that we're going to see as these balls all start moving and all these fronts now that these courts are waking up after the stage set by the impeachment case," said Coale.

The superseding indictment against Nate Paul could simply be part of his bank fraud case. But Coale agreed, federal prosecutors may be trying to get Paul to flip on Paxton, who is the focus of a Federal Grand Jury review.

"You can read it both ways, frankly. Could be if they've come back and hitting it hard to kind of start this next act or the proceedings saying, ‘no, we really mean it. Here are new things we found new claims need to be dealt with before we move forward.’ So, there's a little bit of both going on there. And Paul's got to think to himself. I wonder what's next if this is what came out in November, what's coming in December and January and February. I'm going to have to worry about," said Coale.

Paxton’s immediate worry is the ongoing civil whistleblower lawsuit against him in Austin.

"It’s definitely a creative procedural move. I mean, what he's done is he says he said the settlement agreement that caused all the trouble that led to the impeachment in the first place is, I think, still binding. And so that means they can't move forward the way they want to in Austin. I'm entitled to file this whole new separate lawsuit to enforce that settlement agreement. I don't think it's going to get very far. And so if Mr. Paxton is viewing a victory here as putting off having to give a deposition until maybe some other matters get resolved, it's a win because he's bought himself some time and potentially a fair bit of time in comparison to all the other things he has going on," said Coale.

Paxton’s troubles, Coale noted, is not unlike Former President Trump who is facing multiple lawsuits and criminal charges.

"Mr. Paxton just has a lot of litigation going on. And after a long delay for a number of different reasons, it's all come back to life. And there's a criminal case that needs to get tried. There's a federal prosecution against Mr. Paul that's moving forward. We've got these other lawsuits out there that have been kind of lingering, and they all have their own schedules. Everybody pushing those cases wants them to move. And it's a little bit of kind of jockeying for first place to see who gets out the gate first and, you know, gets points on the board before other cases come along and start slowing things back down again. There's definitely going to be some racing going on in '24 by people trying to get Mr. Paxton to court and get their case resolved before the next guy does," said Coale.

Nate Paul's federal trial is not expected to take place until later next year. A hearing in Paxton’s Burnet County restraining order request is set for later this month.