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Zach Despart Profile
Zach Despart

@zachdespart

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Investigative reporter @texastribune. Alum @houstonchron & @uvmvermont. NY native. Dalmatian dad.

Texas
Joined February 2015
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
18 days
A few months ago I noticed something unusual: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is increasingly outsourcing big cases to private lawyers — even though his office has 700+ attorneys in-house, with several specialized divisions. So we dug in. .
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
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RT @taygoldenstein: Hi Texas! I’ve been in Chicago this week covering the Texas House Democrats breaking quorum here. I’ll be on Reddit a….
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
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Jay Root today
@byjayroot
Jay Root
7 days
Texas legislators are at the #NYS Capitol today and, as a native of Liberty, TX, I’m here for it. @GovKathyHochul “exploring” ways to redraw lines in NY to counter redistricting effort in TX.
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
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RT @emfoxhall: We got answers at a state hearing this morning about what the Kerr County Judge, who is in charge of emergency management, a….
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texastribune.org
Their statements to state legislators marked the first time county officials have spoken publicly about what they were doing the morning of the disaster that killed more than 100 people in the county.
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
11 days
RT @rebekahallen: 1/ A former friend of Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told DPS that in 2022 Miller asked him to dispose of 3 ba….
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
11 days
RT @McGeeReports: New: public records show a former friend of Sid Miller & a former Ag commission employee told state police Miller feared….
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texastribune.org
Miller denies wrongdoing after allegations surfaced during an investigation into one of his aides, who pled guilty to bribery. The agriculture commissioner has not been charged with a crime.
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
12 days
RT @eklib: BREAKING: The Texas House’s proposal to redraw the state’s congressional map is out. More, much more, TK at @TexasTribune but me….
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
14 days
RT @TexasTribune: In the past five years, Ken Paxton has grown increasingly reliant on pricey private lawyers to argue cases on behalf of t….
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texastribune.org
Despite having an office with hundreds of attorneys, Ken Paxton frequently opts to hire private lawyers. One cost taxpayers more than $24,000 in one day.
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
17 days
RT @propublica: Texas AG Ken Paxton hired a former staffer to work on a recent case. As a state employee, her labor would have cost taxpaye….
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propublica.org
Despite having an office of hundreds of attorneys, Ken Paxton is frequently opting for private lawyers — many to whom he has personal or political ties — to argue on behalf of Texas. One attorney...
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
17 days
RT @rebekahallen: Texas AG Ken Paxton is increasingly relying on outside counsel for the state’s litigation despite overseeing hundreds of….
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
18 days
Paxton's outside firms have settled two cases so far, netting Texas $2 billion+. But they have also netted massive paydays for the lawyers — $143m in the Meta case. The fees for a recent settlement w/Google aren't final, but could exceed $350 million.
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texastribune.org
Despite having an office with hundreds of attorneys, Ken Paxton frequently opts to hire private lawyers. One cost taxpayers more than $24,000 in one day.
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
18 days
We found these contingent-fee contracts are unusual. We couldn’t find any awarded by his two Republican predecessors, @JohnCornyn & @GregAbbott_TX. And during Paxton's tenure, the CA, NY & PA AGs have awarded 1 of these combined. Paxton has awarded 13.
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
18 days
Experts who study attorneys general pushed back against that:
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
18 days
Paxton has defended the practice of hiring outside law firms, arguing that his office lacks the resources in-house to take on massive corporations. “These parties have practically unlimited resources that would swamp most legal teams,” he told lawmakers.
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
18 days
Also on that case, one of Bash’s colleagues billed 19.9 hours for a single day, noting that he was working while traveling on flights that were “substantially delayed.”.It cost Texas taxpayers $75,222. (The annual salary of some assistant AGs is $81k)
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
18 days
…but Bash had moved to private practice. Paxton hired her firm to work on the Meta case, allowing her to bill $3,780 an hour, so that day of work will cost taxpayers $24,570.
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
18 days
One day last year, lawyer Zina Bash spent 6.5 hours working on a case against Facebook parent company Meta on behalf of the state of Texas. In her previous job as senior counsel on Paxton’s leadership team, that labor would have cost Texas taxpayers $641….
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@zachdespart
Zach Despart
18 days
Paxton has hired these firms for cases against huge corporations, like Meta, Google & BlackRock. These lawyers work on contingent-fee contracts — meaning they don't get paid unless they win/settle. But when they do, the payouts can be massive. Let's dive into that. .
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