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AG Ken Paxton tries to silence former Gov. Abbott aide who called axing of Trump U suit ‘political’
Brandi Grissom Follow @brandigrissom Email bgrissom@dallasnews.com
Published: June 3, 2016 4:52 pm
AUSTIN, TX - FEBRUARY 18: (L -R) U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Governor Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick hold a joint press conference February 18, 2015 in Austin, Texas.
Updated at 5 p.m.: Revised to include comment from John Owens, the former attorney general’s office employee targeted in Attorney General Ken Paxton’s letter.
AUSTIN — Attorney General Ken Paxton, jumping to the aid of his predecessor and current Gov. Greg Abbott, on Friday sent a letter attempting to silence a critic who said the governor dropped a lawsuit against Donald Trump for political reasons.
“The information now publicly available that you disclosed contains both privileged and confidential information,” Paxton’s first assistant attorney general Jeffrey Mateer said in a letter to John Owens, former deputy director of then-Attorney General Abbott’s Consumer Protection Division.
Owens told the Dallas Morning News and other media outlets that the state’s consumer protection division had sought permission in May 2010 to pursue a lawsuit against Donald Trump and Trump University for bilking Texas taxpayers out of more than $2.6 million.
But that lawsuit was never filed.
Instead, the investigation Abbott had opened into the now-defunct real estate training program and Trump, now the presumptive Republican nominee for president, was dropped and Trump University agreed to cease operations in Texas.
Owens alleged that the decision to quash the lawsuit against Trump was a political move that left Texas consumers “high and dry.”
Years later, Trump gave Abbott $35,000 in political contributions, the only sizable giving the real estate mogul has done in Texas.
Owens on Friday stood by his statements but said in light of threats from the powerful attorney general’s office he would not comment further other than to defend himself. He had been scheduled to appear for an interview on MSNBC.
“Everything I said was accurate and true,” Owens said. “I’ve done nothing illegal or unethical. I think it’s just a scare tactic.”
Abbott took to Twitter on Friday to call the stories about his involvement in the Trump U decision “bogus.”
Shortly after that Tweet, Paxton’s office released a copy of the cease-and-desist letter it sent to Owens.
The letter accuses Owens of breaching his legal duty to hold information regarding his client confidential and says he may have broken “several state laws” by divulging information he obtained as an employee at the AG’s office.
“In light of these provisions, we ask that you immediately cease and desist from disclosing any privileged or confidential information obtained from your employment with this agency,” the letter demands.
Also on Friday, David Morales, a former deputy attorney general, said that he made the decision to drop the Trump case without consulting Abbott beforehand. He informed his boss afterward, he said.
“I am proud that our Consumer Protection Division was able to get Trump University to immediately and permanently leave the State of Texas,” Morales said in his statement. “Their good work served our Texas consumers well.”