Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton collected $84,000 in gifts last year to help pay for his defense against securities fraud charges, The Texas Tribune reports.
The amount, listed in a newly released financial disclosure statement, means Paxton has now amassed gotten a total of over $630,000 for his legal team.
Paxton, a tea party Republican, has pleaded not guilty to security fraud charges related to stock sales and compensation from the technology company Servergy, which had been under federal investigation for suspected misstatements about orders for its data servers.
He is also facing charges he illegally acted as a securities agent for another firm and could be sentenced up to 99 years in prison if convicted.
State bribery laws ban elected officials from accepting gifts from parties subject to their authority.
But Paxton has justified the contributions to his defense by claiming an exemption allowing him to take gifts from people with whom he as a relationship that is "independent" of his "official status," according to The Tribune.
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