Ken Paxton’s handpicked lawyer ‘fired up’ to work on Nate Paul case that ended in scandal

AUSTIN — A private attorney Ken Paxton hired to investigate a campaign donor’s complaints testified Tuesday that his name was impugned and his life upended after he took on the job.

Brandon Cammack, a personal injury lawyer based in Houston, said Paxton hired him because staff at the attorney general’s office refused to investigate the complaints. He was excited and proud, he testified, to get to work for Paxton on a career-building investigation the state’s top lawyer said would take “guts.”

“I was fired up about the opportunity to do it,” Cammack said.

But the sheen began to wear off when U.S. Marshals showed up at his office, Cammack testified, and then he received cease and desist letters to stop his work on the investigation.

Then, at a brief meeting at a local Starbucks with Paxton and his second-in-command, Cammack testified he was told his contract with the agency was no good and that he would be stiffed on the $14,000 he had billed the state.

“You’re gonna have to eat that invoice,” First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster said, according to Cammack’s testimony. He added, “It was offensive.”

Paxton then tried to leave, he testified, without driving Cammack back to his car.

Cammack’s testimony took up most of the sixth day of the impeachment trial. It’s likely the proceedings will finish before the weekend. An update on the time remaining was not provided when they wrapped up Tuesday evening, but prosecutors likely only have a few hours left to make their case against Paxton.

Senators, who as jurors will decide whether Paxton will be removed from office, will deliberate without a break until they reach a verdict.

Paxton has pleaded not guilty to charges. He has not attended his trial since early last week.

The articles of impeachment against Paxton include abuse of office, bribery and obstruction of justice. He is accused of trying to help thwart an FBI investigation into Paul in exchange for a home kitchen remodel and a job for a woman with whom Paxton allegedly had an affair.

Cammack testified that he was asked to look into Paul’s allegations that search warrants used to execute a raid on his home and business in 2019 were illegally altered. Paul alleged federal and state agents were involved, including FBI agents and Department of Public Safety officers.

Cammack worked directly with Paul’s attorney on the investigation, he said, including taking advice on how to draw up grand jury subpoenas and to whom to send them. Cammack said he was unaware he was issuing the subpoenas to financial entities at odds with Paul in a civil lawsuit, and would not have done so if he knew.

On Sept. 30, 2020, Paxton’s deputies who refused to do the job Cammack was hired for reported the attorney general to the FBI for alleged corruption. Then, reporters started calling, Cammack testified.

“I had a whole entire life before all of this,” Cammack said he told Paxton. “I didn’t ask for any of this. You guys reached out to me to come do a job and then now you’re pulling the rug out from under me and I’m getting cease and desist letters and now my name is being thrown through the mud in the media.”

Cammack, however, said Paxton never asked him to break the law.

“Did he ever ask you to, for lack of a better description, lie, cheat or steal?” defense attorney Dan Cogdell asked Cammack. He answered, “No, sir.”

Paxton told Cammack not to talk to feds

During his nearly five-hour testimony, Cammack said he was working at the attorney general’s direction and kept him updated on all of his work on the Paul investigation.

“The only person I reported to was Mr. Paxton,” he said.

Cammack testified that he communicated with the attorney general mostly via text and call. Paxton also asked him to download the encrypted communications app Signal, he added, but that he wasn’t sure whether they ever used it.

Cammack met five times with Paxton, he said, including once at Paul’s home. Paxton, who Cammack said was wearing sneakers and running shorts, spent most of the time on the phone outside while Paul and his lawyer complained about the attorney general’s office employees who issued the cease and desist letter.

Cammack also described working hand-in-glove with Paul’s attorney, Michael Wynne. He said he asked Wynne, a former assistant U.S. attorney, for advice because Cammack had no experience issuing grand jury subpoenas and was unfamiliar with mortgage fraud law.

“I started to get a lot of information from Mr. Paul and Mr. Wynne through emails. That included the list of individuals who were, I guess, suspects or somehow witnesses,” Cammack said.

Some of these individuals ended up getting subpoenaed, he testified, adding Wynne was present when some of the subpoenas were issued in person.

Among those people Cammack interviewed, he testified, was the husband of a deceased clerk of court who Paul implied died under suspicious circumstances.

Cammack called Paxton when the marshals showed up to his office.

“He told me, ‘Well, don’t talk to them without a lawyer. I don’t know what it’s about either,’ and hung up the phone,’” Cammack said.

Bank CEO, former U.S. attorney testify

Paxton picked Cammack for the special investigator job over Joe Brown, a former Grayson County district attorney and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.

Brown testified Tuesday that he was willing to accept the same compensation as Cammack. When he met with Paxton’s former chief deputy Jeff Mateer, the former first assistant who would later report Paxton to the FBI, said he was happy Brown was involved because he would tell Paxton “the truth,” Brown testified.

But Brown was not chosen. He followed up a couple times “but nothing happened after that.”

The Senate also heard from a credit union CEO who said a controversial legal opinion from Paxton’s office delayed the foreclosure sale of at least one of Paul’s properties.

Amplify Credit Union CEO Kendall Garrison said that Paxton’s so-called “midnight opinion” issued in August 2020 brought a halt to foreclosures in Texas over COVID-19 lockdown guidelines.

Paxton had taken a personal interest in the legal opinion that resulted in the delay, prosecutors argued. He had two employees work into the weekend to rush the opinion, according to previous testimony, and had them rewrite the opinion when staff found foreclosure should not be stopped.

While it delayed at least one foreclosure sale, Garrison testified that Amplify Credit Union lost no money after selling Paul’s debt for its face value.

“This was highly unusual,” Garrison said. “I am in my 44th year of banking and this is the first time I’ve seen something of this nature.”

Intervention with charity

The final witness to take the stand Tuesday said the attorney general launched an “incredibly unusual” intervention into a lawsuit between Paul and an Austin charity.

Darren McCarty, Paxton’s former director of civil litigation, testified that Paxton attempted to personally argue in the suit between Paul’s real estate business World Class and the Roy F. and Joann Cole Mitte Foundation.

The foundation sued Paul after he stopped providing information about an investment the foundation had made in World Class. Paul had backed out of a settlement and Paxton ordered his agency to intervene over litigation the attorney general characterized as “wasteful” and “overzealous,” McCarty testified.

McCarty said Paxton’s intervention appeared one-sided.

“I don’t think that we were helping the Mitte Foundation in any way,” he testified.

Toward the end of his testimony, DeGuerin read the first article of impeachment accusing Paxton of harming the Mitte Foundation in order to help Paul. He asked McCarty whether the allegations were true.

“I believe that to be true. Yes,” he said.