AFTER TOP STAFF EXODUS, TEXAS AG SEEKS $43M FOR GOOGLE SUIT

The mass exodus of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s top staff over accusations of bribery against their former boss has left the Republican seeking $43 million in public funds to replace some of them with outside lawyers to lead a high-profile antitrust lawsuit against Google.

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Former Paxton aides told The Associated Press that before they reported him to the FBI in September and began resigning, the lawsuit against the search engine giant was set to be handled internally by what is one of the largest state attorney general’s offices in the U.S.

The outside lawyers’ contracts put a price tag on the fallout from Paxton’s deputies accusing him of crimes in the service of a wealthy donor who employs a woman with whom the attorney general allegedly had an extramarital affair. It remains to be seen how much taxpayers will ultimately shell out under the complex deals.

“At the time I left, there was no intention of hiring outside counsel,” Jeff Mateer, Paxton’s former top lieutenant who resigned in October, told the press.

Mateer said former Deputy Attorney General Darren McCarty was leading the investigation into Google and they intended to assemble a trial team from among the office’s thousands of employees.

“Darren was more than able to do it,” Mateer said.

Through public records requests, the AP obtained contracts Paxton signed last month with two big-name law firms and a letter informing lawmakers of them. The letter was sent a day before the contracts were signed.