These are the four whistle blowers.
James Blake Brickman
Mr. Brickman was deputy attorney general for policy and strategy initiatives from February 2020 until his termination in Oct. 20, 2020, according to the legal filings. The filings said that Mr. Brickman and Mr. Paxton had a good working relationship before the scandals surfaced and that at Mr. Paxton’s request, Mr. Brickman moved with his wife and three children to Austin to work with him. The filings allege that months before Mr. Brickman began expressing concern about Mr. Paxton’s behavior, the attorney general regularly lauded his work, once calling him an “amazing addition,” to his office.
But after the staff members questioned the efforts to assist Mr. Paul, the relationship soured, the filings say. Mr. Brickman was asked to step away from key meetings, a move that he said in court documents was intended to “diminish Brickman’s duties and responsibilities to punish him, to try to intimidate and embarrass or humiliate him.”
Before coming to work for Mr. Paxton, Mr. Brickman was the chief of staff for former Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky, a Republican. He has also served as chief of staff for former Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, also a Republican.
David Maxwell
For 10 years Mr. Maxwell oversaw a team of about 350 employees with the Texas attorney general’s office, where he worked as the deputy director and director of the law enforcement division. The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Maxwell came into conflict with Mr. Paxton when he learned of Mr. Paxton’s attempt to insert himself in the federal inquiry connected to Mr. Paul. In the lawsuit he filed with fellow whistle-blowers, Mr. Maxwell and Mark Penley asserted that “many of Paul’s complaints were outside state jurisdiction.”
In legal filings, Mr. Maxwell described himself as an “honest, thorough and tough law enforcement investigator.” His career in law enforcement spanned about 50 years, including 35 of them with the Texas Department of Public Safety, most of that time as a Texas Ranger, according to legal documents.
Mr. Maxwell is also known in Texas for helping to identify the man who raped and fatally stabbed his sister, Diane Maxwell Jackson, decades after the crime, which took place in 1969. A judge sentenced her killer to life in prison in 2004.
Mark Penley
Mr. Penley worked as the deputy attorney general for criminal justice under Mr. Paxton for just over a year, from Oct. 8, 2019 until Nov. 2, 2020. During that time, he supervised a team of about 220 employees in various divisions, including criminal prosecutions, special prosecutions, criminal appeals and crime victims services, according to legal filings. Mr. Penley, a retired federal prosecutor, has spent nearly 40 years practicing law.
