Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is pretty familiar with Catherine Engelbrecht. He\u2019s been a guest on her podcast, chatting about their shared passion: rooting out voter fraud. They both have gone to great lengths to try to support former President Donald Trump\u2019s lie that the 2020 election was stolen.<\/p>\n
And when Engelbrecht, founder of the nonprofit True the Vote, has found herself in hot water, Paxton\u2019s office has turned out to be a helpful ally.<\/p>\n
Most recently, a state judge sided with Engelbrecht\u2019s argument that it should be Paxton\u2019s office — not a court — that should probe allegations made by a True the Vote donor who says he was swindled out of $2.5 million.<\/p>\n
But more than a year after the case was dismissed, Paxton\u2019s office won\u2019t say whether it ever investigated the donor dispute. Last month, Reveal<\/em> from The Center for Investigative Reporting found that True the Vote had engaged<\/a> in a series of questionable transactions that sent more than $1 million to Engelbrecht and other insiders, while failing to back up its voter fraud claims.<\/p>\n In the reporting of that story, Paxton\u2019s office withheld financial documents and email communications from Reveal and issued contradictory and inaccurate statements about the nonprofit, which has been a leading voice in driving the voter fraud movement from the political fringes to the core of GOP ideology.<\/p>\n The embattled attorney general this year skated<\/a> through a contested primary race. But he faces potential disbarment for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, is under investigation<\/a> by the FBI, is getting sued by whistleblowers<\/a> in his office and awaits trial<\/a> for a seven-year-old felony indictment for securities fraud. In their lawsuit, former staff members have accused him of using his office to provide legal favors to an ally, saying he appointed a special prosecutor<\/a> to target adversaries of a donor who was under investigation.<\/p>\n His office advocated on Engelbrecht\u2019s behalf<\/a> before the Texas Supreme Court in 2016 when she got into legal trouble with her previous nonprofit organization, King Street Patriots, for being overtly political. He appeared on her podcast<\/a> in July 2020, during which Engelbrecht said she considers Paxton a friend.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t say thank you enough for the dignity and the respect that you bring to that office,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n \u201cI feel blessed to have this opportunity, especially in a time like this. It\u2019s really a crisis,\u201d Paxton replied.<\/p>\n \u201cGod bless you. God bless you, Ken Paxton, God bless you. And thank you for all that you and your team do,\u201d Engelbrecht added. <\/p>\n Months later, the two went to extraordinary lengths to support Trump\u2019s lie that the 2020 election was stolen. Paxton filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Texas seeking to overturn the election in key states where Trump had lost, a suit that the Supreme Court eventually dismissed<\/a> because Texas had no legal standing to challenge other states\u2019 results. <\/p>\n Engelbrecht, meanwhile, accepted $2.5 million from a major conservative donor to lead a legal and PR campaign to contest the election results. However, True the Vote quickly dismissed the lawsuits it filed and provided no evidence of voter fraud. The donor, Fred Eshelman, became disillusioned and sued True the Vote in rural Austin County, Texas, in February 2021 for misusing his donation.<\/p>\n Anytime a charity in Texas is sued, the state attorney general\u2019s office is notified under law. On March 9, 2021, Assistant Attorney General Zeenia Challa wrote to the Austin County district clerk, notifying the court that the office learned about the dispute. Challa said she was \u201ccurrently reviewing the documents provided in the proceeding to determine if Attorney General participation is warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n On the same day, an attorney for True the Vote wrote to Challa that he anticipated that she would want to know \u201cthat the funds spent by this charitable organization are being spent consistent with the purposes for which the entity was formed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou will see, if it comes to that point, that all of the expenditures of True the Vote have been made in order to evaluate, investigate and ultimately educate on the issues of voter integrity,\u201d attorney Brock Akers said in the letter, which was produced in response to an open records request. <\/p>\n Neither court records nor records released by the attorney general\u2019s office indicate whether Challa responded to letters from True the Vote\u2019s attorneys. <\/p>\n On March 31, attorneys for True the Vote argued that the lawsuit did not have standing because it was a matter for the Texas attorney general\u2019s office. <\/p>\n \u201cInstead, the only true party in interest relative to money donated to this charitable organization is the State of Texas, as represented by the Attorney General,\u201d True the Vote argued, according to court records.<\/p>\n The Austin County judge<\/a> agreed with True the Vote\u2019s argument April 8, freeing Engelbrecht\u2019s nonprofit from the specter of having to return $2.5 million.<\/p>\n More than a year after the case was dismissed, Paxton\u2019s office won\u2019t say whether it ever investigated. And it refused to answer questions about whether it will examine the organization\u2019s finances. Engelbrecht did not respond to questions related to her relationship with Paxton.<\/p>\n Eshelman has appealed the judge\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n As Reveal<\/em> sought to better understand True the Vote\u2019s finances and whether Paxton looked into the donor dispute, we requested various records related to the nonprofit, which are public records under the Texas Public Information Act and held by the attorney general\u2019s office. We also requested internal attorney general communications about True the Vote. <\/p>\n In response to the request for the records, Assistant Attorney General June Harden said True the Vote was no longer a charity and closed the request without turning over any documents.<\/p>\n When pressed on the decision, Harden later said she \u201cmisspoke.\u201d Indeed, records with the state indicate True the Vote is an active charity. The request was reopened.<\/p>\n As is the case in many states, the Texas attorney general can keep records of nonprofits, like their tax filings. The attorney general\u2019s office first said it did not have True the Vote\u2019s tax filings, then later acknowledged it had the nonprofit\u2019s 2019 return but refused to release it. To make its case, it cited a general statute that says tax returns are confidential for the average person. <\/p>\n Joe Larsen, a First Amendment attorney and board member of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, said that statute didn\u2019t apply. \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of information that\u2019s supposed to be available to the public,\u201d Larsen said. The attorney general\u2019s office \u201chas no basis for withholding that.\u201d<\/p>\n In Texas, it\u2019s usually possible to appeal records decisions made by public agencies. However, the attorney general is the party that decides on the appeal. <\/p>\n Ultimately, we received versions of True the Vote\u2019s tax returns from other sources, and they show a series of questionable financial transactions. <\/p>\n At one point, Engelbrecht provided Reveal<\/em> a copy of the 2019 tax return <\/a>that was significantly different from the version on the IRS website<\/a>. The IRS version showed that True the Vote had loaned her more than $113,000; the version provided to Reveal<\/em> didn\u2019t list that information. The two versions listed different board members as well.<\/p>\n When Reveal requested records from the attorney general, Paxton also withheld some communications related to True the Vote, citing attorney-client privilege. It\u2019s unclear what those records could be. Larsen said there could be some communications that can be withheld under attorney-client privilege about True the Vote, but it doesn\u2019t mean it can withhold all communications. <\/p>\n It\u2019s commonplace for law enforcement agencies to not comment on pending investigations, but in other cases, Paxton has publicly acknowledged when he\u2019s investigating a charity. <\/p>\n The Texas State Bar in May filed<\/a> a lawsuit against Paxton for falsely saying he\u2019d uncovered evidence that cast doubt on the 2020 election result. Paxton could face a reprimand or have his legal license revoked. <\/p>\n \u201cTexas Bar: I\u2019ll see you and the leftists that control you in court,\u201d Paxton said in response.<\/p>\n Paxton announced<\/a> his office was investigating the Texas Bar Foundation, which is the nonprofit arm of the State Bar that offers legal services and education. He claimed the nonprofit was \u201cfacilitating mass influx of illegal aliens\u201d by donating money to groups that \u201cencourage, participate in, and fund illegal immigration at the Texas-Mexico border.\u201d<\/p>\n While Paxton has remained silent on True the Vote, the nonprofit\u2019s research grabbed attention during the hearings of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n In a video shown during the second hearing last month, former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr mocked the film \u201c2000 Mules,\u201d which used True the Vote\u2019s claims that anonymized cellphone data around ballot drop boxes pointed to \u201cballot harvesting.\u201d That\u2019s when a third party — like a household member, activist group or nursing home — collects and submits absentee ballots on behalf of others, which is legal in a majority of states<\/a>. <\/p>\n In his videotaped testimony<\/a>, Barr said True the Vote\u2019s data and video evidence were \u201clacking.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cMy opinion then and my opinion now is that the election was not stolen by fraud,\u201d Barr said. \u201cAnd I haven\u2019t seen anything since the election that changes my mind on that, including the \u20182000 Mules\u2019 movie.\u201d <\/p>\n He broke out in a laugh. <\/p>\n Shortly after the hearing, Engelbrecht joined former Trump adviser Steve Bannon\u2019s \u201cWar Room\u201d show, where the two bashed Barr\u2019s testimony and made veiled threats against the former U.S. attorney general. <\/p>\n \u201cBill Barr, we are coming for you, bro,\u201d Bannon said<\/a>. Engelbrecht nodded her head. <\/p>\n \u201cBeware the fury of a risen people, this is not going to go well if they continue to push this aside,\u201d Engelbrecht said.<\/p>\n In the weeks following the film\u2019s May 7 release, Engelbrecht has hosted a series of question-and-answer forums. However, she engages only with people who pay to subscribe to her content creator platform on Locals. <\/p>\n Several commenters recently asked Engelbrecht when she planned to release the voter fraud evidence following the debut of \u201c2000 Mules.\u201d She did not address a specific date.<\/p>\n Engelbrecht, arriving late to a recent livestream and from her car, read aloud from a lengthy commenter\u2019s post about election fraud that went on to say: \u201cI\u2019m not happy about being scammed by True the Vote. And given the apparent holes in the arguments and perhaps the shadiness of the graphics, I certainly cannot publicly endorse \u20182000 mules.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n She paused. <\/p>\n \u201cThis one would have been a fun question to start from the bottom and read up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cSorry you didn\u2019t like the movie and that you didn\u2019t like the graphics. Take that up with Dinesh,\u201d Engelbrecht said, referring to director Dinesh D\u2019Souza. \u201cAnd if you feel like you\u2019re being scammed, then why are you on this Locals channel? You had to subscribe to even ask the question. That\u2019s your choice.\u201d <\/p>\n Shortly after, Engelbrecht ended her livestream early.<\/p>\n This story was edited by Andrew Donohue and Sumi Aggarwal and copy edited by Nikki Frick.<\/em><\/p>\n Cassandra Jaramillo can be reached at <\/em>cjaramillo@revealnews.org<\/em><\/a>. Follow her on Twitter: <\/em>@cassandrajar<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This story was produced by <\/em>Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization. Learn more at revealnews.org and subscribe to their weekly newsletter at revealnews.org\/newsletter.<\/em><\/p>\n\nPaxton\u2019s Office Withholds Records and Claims True the Vote Isn\u2019t a Charity<\/h2>\n
True the Vote\u2019s Research Debunked at Jan. 6 Hearing<\/h2>\n