AUSTIN (Legal Newsline) - The whistleblower who is partially responsible for impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Paxton was likely planted in his office for nefarious purposes, according to a source who claims first-hand knowledge.
Blake Brickman sued the Attorney General’s office and claimed whistleblower status after he was fired in 2022; his allegations against Paxton are among those that will be litigated at an impeachment trial scheduled for Sept. 5 in the state Senate.
The source with first-hand knowledge, who asked not to be identified, alleges that Gov. Greg Abbott’s long-time chief of staff Daniel Hodge helped arrange for Brickman to be installed in the AG’s office, where he served as a deputy attorney general for policy and strategy initiatives.
“[Brickman] is not only an outsider to the Attorney General's office and his whole network, but even to the state of Texas,” he said. “From the earliest days, they never had a good relationship at all, but the Attorney General was reluctant to fire him.”
In 2017, Abbott announced in a press release that Daniel Hodge would transition to the private sector and be replaced by Luis Saenz.
"Hodge is not the chief of staff currently, but he's a very highly paid lobbyist in the state now," the first-hand knowledge expert stated. "Hodge and Brickman are friends. The sitting Attorney General, even though he had mostly a good relationship with the governor, was always suspicious of this and very concerned about it. His concerns became real when this Brickman guy claimed to report to the chief of staff and not the Attorney General."
Hodge did not respond to a request for comment.
Brickman was fired on Oct. 20, 2020. He had worked in the AG's office for nearly a year.
“The Attorney General had his suspicions about [Brickman]," the expert for this story told Legal Newsline. “He is a very disagreeable person. He does not like to be questioned.”
Brickman did not respond to requests for comment.
Paxton’s office issued a 365-page report in 2020 outlining Brickman’s "poor" performance and outlining why Brickman had been fired and the chances he was given to avoid termination.
The report alleges it was Brickman’s insubordination that led to his dismissal:
“…Because of Mr. Brickman’s intentional disobedience, refusal to follow reasonable directives from the First Assistant [Webster], poor work product, and Mr. Brickman’s ‘use’ of an unprofessional tone towards management...Mr. Brickman routinely demonstrated an insubordinate attitude towards First Assistant Webster. Specifically, Deputy Reitz stated Mr. Brickman was ‘the most obstructive, he was a jerk.”
The source with first-hand knowledge further stated that Brickman was motivated to dismantle Paxton due to ideological divisions within the state's GOP.
“There are a lot of Republicans in Texas who have good intentions on this and feel that they want Texas to be a red state, but they don't want the transphobia stuff and the bathroom issues, and social issues being at the forefront,” he said. “That is a legitimate inside-the-party debate and fight but it’s become really vicious and kind of scary.”
Paxton has aggressively pursued reports of and vocally opposed providing gender-affirming care to minors, according to media reports.
On June 16, Texas Tribune journalist Patrick Svitek posted on Twitter that Brickman called Paxton a coward and dared him to testify at the Senate impeachment trial, less than two months away.
"Paxton's criminal defense attorneys and impeachment defense attorneys will not allow him to testify because it's a setup," the source with first-hand knowledge said. "They're going to ask a thousand questions looking for any kind of slip up, discrepancy, misremembering, or not remembering that can be used against him in the criminal trial that is still pending for eight years. But Brickman is able to get some attention on the case he's making that if Paxton doesn't testify, well then surely he must have done something wrong."