Texas AG Ken Paxton reaches deal with prosecutors

AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is going to have to pay up, but he does not have to admit he did anything wrong regarding securities fraud charges he has faced since 2015. 

On Tuesday morning, Paxton agreed to pay almost $300,000 in restitution to the victims. As part of the deal, the AG must also complete 100 hours of community service and 15 hours of legal ethics education. 

In 2015, Paxton was indicted on two counts of securities fraud for not disclosing he was paid to push a company to investors. 

Democratic analyst Ed Espinoza and Travis County GOP Chairman Matt Mackowiak joined FOX 7 Austin's Rebecca Thomas to discuss.

MORE: Texas AG Ken Paxton securities fraud case deal reached with prosecutors

REBECCA THOMAS: Matt. Do you think this is a fair deal? 

MATT MACKOWIAK: Well, without being a party to the lawsuit, without being fully aware of all the facts and witnesses involved, on either side or really on both sides. It's hard to say whether it's quote unquote fair or not. I do think it's a victory for the attorney general in this sense. He doesn't have to go to trial. He doesn't have to have that fate before him, whether it's a jury or a judge that decides it. And now he not only eliminates the possibility of a jail sentence with a guilty verdict. He doesn't even have to admit any wrongdoing whatsoever. And so this now ten year saga is behind him. There are costs associated as you detail. There's the restitution, there's the community service, and there's the legal ethics time he has to put in. But overall, if there's no way this isn't a victory for Joe Paxton, for his legal team, for his family, he puts this behind him. 

REBECCA THOMAS: And what do you make of prosecutors cutting this deal just weeks before the criminal. The trial was set to start? 

ED ESPINOZA: Yeah. Look, with the attorney general, Ken Paxton, wanting to find a way out of this, it's not unusual because he has tried to avoid the stand in other cases. Remember, it was just about a month ago that he went to the Texas Supreme Court to ask for permission for him to not have to be on the stand during another trial that he had had to deal with. So, yeah, look, this is the kind of plea deal that I don't think that any of the three of us could get if we were in some sort of a situation, which, by the way, I hope none of us are. But I think that this is a situation where, okay, he doesn't have to admit guilt, and he doesn't have to say that he he pled to anything but 300 hours of community service for a sitting attorney general. That's saying something. 15 hours of ethics training for a sitting attorney general is saying something. And I don't think that those are things that are going to be easy to dismiss. But, you know, those are going to be on his record. And we'll wave to him on on the freeway. And we see him picking up trash on 360. 

REBECCA THOMAS: Matt, does Paxton potentially face federal charges, though with the Nate Paul case? This is separate. 

MATT MACKOWIAK: Yeah, we don't know. I mean, the there was a federal grand jury and panel. This was reported I think it was last year. It got interrupted by the impeachment effort, which of course advanced in the House and then was denied in the Texas Senate. Not only did it not reach a two-thirds majority that was needed to convict, it didn't even reach a majority of the Texas Senate. So, look, it's been reported by the Houston Chronicle that the prosecutors approached Paxton's team to settle this case, and that they did it on the basis that their witness testimony was either unreliable or was adversarial. And so I think, in the end, look, a deal like this gets cut not because Ken Paxton wanted it, but because the prosecutors had a weak case and they did not want to lose in court after ten years. And Lord knows how much in taxpayer dollars spent millions and millions of dollars. Also, we could get some community service time. It seems to me that the prosecutors really blew this. This should have been handled as a civil matter. It should have been handled with a fine. That's how it's handled in almost every case in Texas as it relates to securities fraud. In this case, he was targeted because he's a conservative who fights, you know, fights hard. And I think that's why he was targeted. And this goes back to the Texas House and a lot of things that have been applied for years and years and years. 

REBECCA THOMAS: We are running out of time, Ed final thought. 

ED ESPINOZA: He was targeted by Republicans for something that Ken Paxton did not deny doing. It's whether or not the legality of it was in line with that was up for dispute here. By the way, the delay for ten years happens all on Ken Paxton's watch. He is the one who challenged whether or not prosecutors should be paid a certain amount to do it. He tried to move the venue from one place to another. This is all a stall tactic that ultimately paid off for the attorney general. And again, no one else in the state, the three of us or anyone else would able to be, would be able to get this sort of preferential treatment for any other kind of miscarriages of justice. And that's what this is. It's unfortunate, but it's the reality we've got to deal with. 

REBECCA THOMAS: All right, Ed, Matt, thank you both for sharing your perspectives with us tonight.