It appears a former political operative employed by State Rep. Charlie Geren (R–Fort Worth) may be stalling a deposition in order to protect his former boss.
On Thursday, attorneys for Democrat political operative David Sorensen filed a motion to quash a February 22nd deposition at which Sorensen was scheduled to answer questions about a fraudulent phone call to CPS he allegedly made as part of an under-handed political attack in the closing days of the 2016 Republican primary.
Sorensen, who was employed by Geren during that campaign, is being sued by Fort Worth businessman Bo French, who unsuccessfully challenged Geren in 2016 and is running against him again this cycle.
According to a spokesman for the French campaign, Sorensen’s attorneys have refused to give any alternative dates for the deposition and appear to be attempting to put it off until after voters go to the polls on March 6th.
If Sorensen is, indeed, attempting to delay answering questions until after the primary, that may be additional evidence that Geren had knowledge of the planned attack on his opponent’s family. Last month, Geren brought suspicion on himself when he made an implausible denial of any knowledge of the lawsuit between French and Sorensen before being contacted by local newspapers.
Regardless of his culpability in the scandal, Geren has given Fort Worth voters plenty of reason to send him home. This session he earned a 41 on the Fiscal Responsibility Index. On the way to earning that rating, he fought unsuccessfully to weaken Gov. Greg Abbott’s bill to ban sanctuary cities and successfully scuttled several major tenets of the governor’s ethics reform package.
Voters in House District 99 undoubtedly want to know whether their representative had knowledge that his campaign operative was going to make a phony phone call to CPS against his political opponent. It will be unacceptable if Sorensen is able to run the clock out on answering questions until after the election.