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AUSTIN — Austin police opened an investigation into a report by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that he received threatening text messages days after his top staff accused him of abusing his office to help a friend and donor, The Dallas Morning News has learned.
Paxton’s spokesman said the texts came from Bryan Hardeman. A fellow Republican, Hardeman is in a legal battle with Nate Paul, the Austin real estate developer whose relationship with Paxton sparked the allegations of wrongdoing against the attorney general.
Hardeman sent Paxton a picture of a dead animal that was recently shot and the message, “stay the hell away from Nate Paul,” the developer’s attorney claimed, adding the texts amounted to overt threats and harassment.
But Hardeman has a completely different account of what happened. Through an attorney, Hardeman confirmed texting Paxton but said the messages he sent in October were not threatening. He and Paxton are friends who occasionally exchange photographs of deer they have hunted, Hardeman’s lawyer said.
Paxton’s spokesman declined to respond further, saying only that Hardeman’s account leaves out “significant facts and context.”
The News did not see copies of the texts but reviewed photographs that Hardeman said he sent to Paxton last month.
The confrontation is just the latest twist in a scandal that has alienated Paxton from members of his own party and landed him in the crosshairs of federal authorities. Paxton’s relationship with Paul is the subject of an FBI investigation. Several former employees who were fired after raising concerns about the two men’s ties have sued Paxton for retaliation.
Now, Paxton is accusing Hardeman of threatening him to cut ties with Paul.
This week, federal agents served at least one subpoena at the attorney general’s office, according to The Austin-American Statesman. Paxton’s own legal troubles are growing more complicated just as he stepped into the national spotlight, seeking to overturn election results in four key battleground states that President Donald Trump lost.
The Texts
According to a report the Austin Police Department provided to The News, Paxton received several text messages just after 10:00 p.m. on October 11. He did not see them until the next day because the attorney general “does not check his text messages frequently,” the report added.
Paxton disclosed the texts to police two days later. In the report, police classified the messages as a “terroristic threat” meant to “influence the conduct or activities” of a government agency.
The police redacted the name of the person who sent the texts and any description of their content, citing an open investigation.
“Paxton stated he received what he described as threatening text messages,” the report reads. “Paxton was taking these threats seriously.”
Eight days later, Hardeman was deposed in a separate legal matter by an attorney representing Paul’s business entities. Hardeman was asked whether he recently texted the attorney general about Paul. He said yes.
“I did here just a couple weeks ago. The attorney general and I are pretty good friends. And we have swapped texts, photos of different deer that he has killed or I have,” Hardeman said, according to a transcript of the deposition. “I sent him one about a week or two ago, a picture of a friend of one of my daughters who had killed a big deer. And I sent that to him and said, you know, ‘What do you think about this one?’”
Paxton has denied any wrongdoing, saying he intervened on Paul’s behalf to protect the rights of a Texas citizen. Paxton fired five of the employees who raised concerns; three others resigned. Four are now suing the attorney general, claiming he retaliated against them for raising legitimate concerns of bribery and abuse of office. That lawsuit is ongoing.
Paul, who is fighting foreclosure on several properties, continues to fight in court with debtors like Hardeman. In a court filing last month, an attorney representing one of Paul’s businesses accused Hardeman of sending the texts to discourage the attorney general from investigating Paul’s allegations.
“Incredibly, Hardeman has even resorted to overt threats and harassment of a high ranking government official, to discourage him from investigating Hardeman and his affiliates,” Mark Ralston wrote.
The details of the texts were also reported in the Southeast Texas Record, a website that’s reportedly part of a pay-to-play network. The Record’s source for the information was a letter one of Paul’s other attorneys, Michael Wynne, sent to the Office of the Attorney on Nov. 17.
It’s unclear how Paul, Ralston and Wynne found out about Hardeman’s text messages. Neither attorney responded to The News’ requests for comment.
Paxton’s campaign spokesman Ian Prior declined to release a copy of the messages to The News. He confirmed the texts mentioned by Paul’s lawyers and those Paxton reported to the police are the same.
“After receiving [the texts], the Attorney General became concerned,” Prior said. “He personally reported those concerns to the Austin Police Department.”
Prior confirmed the texts came from Hardeman.
Hardeman’s Story
Hardeman has a completely different explanation of what happened.
A Republican donor whose family owns multiple car dealerships in Austin and the Rio Grande Valley, Hardeman told The News through his lawyer that the photo he sent Paxton that day in October was of a family friend posing with a buck she had recently shot.
“Both Mr. Hardeman and the Attorney General like to deer hunt. As part of their friendship, Mr. Hardeman and Mr. Paxton, on occasion, will exchange photographs of their deer hunting successes. Any suggestion by the Attorney General or anyone else that Mr. Hardeman has threatened the Attorney General is ridiculous,” attorney Randy Howry said in a statement.
Hardeman has supported Paxton politically, Howry added. According to state campaign records, Hardeman hosted a fundraising event for Paxton in 2018 and contributed $10,000 to Paxton and $5,000 to Sen. Angela Paxton, the attorney general’s wife, in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Howry said his client no longer has a copy of the text he sent Paxton and doesn’t remember the exact photo he shared. He provided The News copies of two photographs, one of which Hardeman said was the photograph he sent Paxton in October.
The first shows a woman wearing a sunhat, smiling and posing with a trophy buck. The other shows the same woman and trophy buck, accompanied by a smiling man wearing camouflage who is holding a baby in a Texas Longhorns onesie.
Howry also confirmed that Hardeman told Paxton “to be careful about Nate Paul.” He said this, too, was not meant to be a threat.
“This was a caution to a friend, Mr. Paxton, and not in any way a threat to him,” Howry.
Hardeman did not know about Paxton’s police report until reached him earlier this month, his lawyer said; neither Austin police nor any other law enforcement agency has contacted them about this matter.
Austin police did not respond to The News’ questions about why they had not questioned Hardeman or whether the investigation is still ongoing.
Paxton’s spokesman said Hardeman left out key facts in his explanation of the texts but declined this week to comment further.
“The matter is currently in the hands of the Austin Police Department,” Prior said.