Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico’s campaign on Wednesday asked a court to unseal transcripts of a pair of years-old depositions given by his opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton, as part of a messy securities fraud dispute.
The petition, filed in Collin County, targets depositions Paxton sat for in 2019 and 2022 as part of a legal clash that ensnared the attorney general, his financial adviser and his former business associates.
North Texas businessman Charles Loper III, who oversees Paxton’s blind trust, in 2016 accused an energy company called Unity Resources and two of its investors, Byron Cook and Joel Hochberg, of defrauding him. The case centered in part on alleged securities fraud, with Loper accusing Cook and Hochberg of launching a scheme to profit off a Unity investment fund. Cook and Hochberg in turn accused Loper and Paxton of conspiring to sully their names because they were set to serve as key witnesses in a separate criminal securities fraud case against Paxton.
The attorney general previously served as a lawyer and board member for Unity and invested in the company.
In Paxton’s separate criminal securities fraud case, Cook and Hochberg accused Paxton of misleading them into investing in a McKinney technology company without disclosing he'd be paid a commission for the recruitments. Paxton was indicted in 2015, the year before Loper brought his lawsuit. Federal prosecutors dropped the charges against Paxton before trial in 2024, under a deal that required him to pay restitution and take legal ethics courses.
The depositions mark exceedingly rare occasions of Paxton being forced to answer questions about his conduct under oath. Through numerous since-resolved legal and ethical scandals, Paxton has avoided giving sworn testimony.
“The right of Texans to see these depositions matters more than ever,” lawyers for Talarico’s campaign wrote in their court filing. “Existing public reporting suggests that Paxton’s testimony raises substantial ethical questions. Texans have the right to know what Paxton said under oath in these proceedings and see the whole story before they go to the polls in November.”
The lawyers argued that the issue is “of immense public importance given Paxton’s candidacy in a sharply competitive election for U.S. Senate.” That part of their argument hinged largely on a Wall Street Journal report earlier this year that found, according to the 2019 deposition, that Paxton may have violated attorney-client privilege.
In the deposition, the Journal reported, Paxton acknowledged providing records from Unity — his former client — to his own lawyer, Mitch Little, who represented Loper in his suit against Unity. Little, now a Republican state lawmaker from Lewisville, also represented Paxton when he faced bribery and abuse of office charges in his 2023 impeachment trial. The Republican-controlled state Senate acquitted Paxton.
In Wednesday’s court filing, Talarico’s campaign lawyers wrote that while the campaign had not seen the deposition transcripts, the reporting on them indicates they “directly implicate Paxton’s fitness for office.” That’s enough, they contended, to satisfy a state law that entitles public access to discovery — the evidence and information exchanged before trial, which includes depositions — if it’s about “matters that have a probable adverse effect upon” either “the administration of public office, or the operation of government.”
Paxton campaign spokesperson Madison Cercy said Talarico's effort to unseal the depositions was "nothing more than a desperate attempt to hide his own extremism." She did not otherwise address the substance of the Democrat's legal maneuver.
“James Talarico is once again proving how desperate he is to try and hide his radical record from Texans," Cercy said in a statement. "He’s not only only voted to put men in women’s sports, but he’s also repeatedly voted to raise taxes on hardworking Texans at every turn, including voting in favor of an income tax and raising property taxes."
Those votes refer to Talarico's opposition to legislation making it harder to enact a future income tax — which Texas has never levied — and lowering the amount of property tax revenue local governments can collect without sign-off from voters. Talarico's campaign has pointed to recent property tax-cut legislation he has supported.
A Paxton campaign spokesperson previously called the Journal’s reporting on Paxton's 2019 deposition “blatant lies” and a violation of a court order. Little told the Journal there was no conflict of interest and said the records Paxton shared were not privileged.
The depositions remained hidden while the Collin County district judge presiding over the case, Republican Cynthia Wheless, put the matter on ice for more than four years. The case was eventually settled in 2023.
The petition can be found here.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.