During the impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, former employees admitted that they reported Paxton to the FBI without any evidence and had no reason not to trust federal agents.
Ryan Vassar, a former deputy attorney general under Paxton, testified over the course of two days regarding his decision to report the AG to the FBI. He claimed that he and seven other so-called whistleblowers had a “good faith belief” that Paxton had committed criminal actions.
This meeting with the FBI in the Fall of 2020 eventually led to the majority of the impeachment articles, alleging that Paxton misused his office to benefit a specific individual who had, several years earlier, donated to one of Paxton’s campaigns.
During the cross-examination by Mitch Little, an attorney for Paxton, Vassar made the shocking revelation that he and the other employees had gone to the FBI without a shred of evidence.
“Mr. Vassar, please, I want to get this straight — you went to the FBI on September 30 with your compatriots, and reported the elected attorney general of this state for a crime without any evidence?” Little asked. “Yes?”
“That’s right,” Vassar admitted. “We took no evidence.”
He attempted to clarify, saying, “We had no evidence that we could point to, but we had reasonable conclusions we could draw.”
Little then asked if, after going to the FBI without any evidence, they later collected evidence that would corroborate their claims to the FBI.
“I don’t recall that we collected any
