Leave it to our fearless Attorney General, Ken Paxton, to turn a DC winter storm into a high-stakes game of Monopoly played with your tax dollars. Apparently, when a little snow kept his staff from attending President Trump’s inauguration and defending our right to verify age on “spicy” websites, the OAG didn’t just cancel the reservations like a normal person. Instead, they decided to run a boutique travel agency for campaign donors and international businessmen.
The agency dropped over $20,000 on a nonrefundable block of rooms at the Courtyard Marriott, and when the employees couldn’t make it, they just handed the keys to the “cool kids.” The guest list reads like the setup for a joke you’d hear at a 4th of July BBQ in a gated community: we’ve got major donors, a couple of Albanian businessmen, a Frisco pastor, and even State Sen. Angela Paxton (who was apparently still on speaking terms with Ken at the time).
Everything was fine and dandy until the state comptroller decided to do their actual job and start an audit. Suddenly, these “private citizens” realized they forgot to open their wallets. It’s amazing how a government audit can suddenly remind a pastor and a donor that they owe the state thousands of dollars for a hotel stay they “forgot” to pay for a year ago.
Naturally, as soon as the audit heat got turned back up this March, two of Paxton’s top aides, Michele Price and Lesley French, decided it was the perfect time to “pursue other opportunities.” They resigned faster than a Lubbock driver trying to beat a red light on 19th Street. They didn’t mention the investigation in their letters, of course—I’m sure the timing was just a total coincidence, much like Paxton’s ongoing ability to remain in office despite enough scandals to fill a season of Dallas.
Isn’t it comforting to know that while you’re checking your couch cushions for gas money, our state’s top lawman is busy ensuring his donors have a cozy, taxpayer-subsidized place to rest their heads in the capital?
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/04/02/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-hotel-rooms-donors-audit/
