The day after Democrats teamed up with a minority of Republicans to make Dustin Burrows the next speaker of the Texas House, Austin real estate developer Nate Paul agreed to a plea deal with the Department of Justice.
Paul is set to plead guilty to one count of making a false statement. The DOJ’s other eleven counts will be dropped. Instead of decades in prison, government prosecutors have recommended no more than six months, five years of supervised release, and a maximum $1 million fine. The sentence is not yet set.
The timing of Paul’s indictment in June 2023 sparked speculation that it could potentially impact the Texas House-launched impeachment proceedings against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Despite these speculations, Paxton ultimately prevailed against the impeachment effort.
The full costs incurred by the Texas House for the impeachment proceedings have not been disclosed to the public. Burrows, the current House speaker, was previously part of the leadership team of former Speaker Dade Phelan.
The early floundering of Burrows’ speakership suggests his time may mimic Phelan’s. Today, for the second day in a row, activity in the Texas House was postponed.
The charges against Paul stemmed from his alleged attempts to secure loans by providing false information about the number of expected lease agreements he had with government entities. Prosecutors claim that Paul overstated these agreements to obtain more favorable loan terms.
The case has been closely watched due to its connections to Paxton. Paul was a political donor to Paxton, and their relationship came under scrutiny when a handful of Paxton staffers accused him of abusing his office to help Paul in 2020.
Famously, these staffers did not take any evidence of wrongdoing to the FBI when they turned on Paxton. Two of these former staffers did take employment with California-to-Texas transplant Joe Lonsdale.
