Ken Paxton initially used taxpayer funds to pay for hotel rooms for his donors and foreign nationals for Trump’s inauguration.
Paxton Initially Used Taxpayer Dollars To Pay For Private Citizens’ And Foreign Nationals’ Hotel Rooms For Trump’s Inauguration. According to the Texas Tribune, “Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office is under scrutiny after agency employees reallocated taxpayer-funded hotel rooms to donors and other private citizens, some of whom failed to cover the cost of the stay until the state comptroller began auditing the agency’s finances earlier this year. Two senior officials involved in the incident resigned soon after it was brought to agency leadership’s attention[...] The people who agreed to take the rooms included major Paxton donors Terry and Jennifer Lacore, controversial Albanian businessman Bashkim Ulaj and chair of the Albanian Republican Party Fatmir Mediu. Keith Craft, lead pastor at Elevate Life Church in Frisco, later took one of the rooms as well. The list was first reported by Texas Bullpen.” [Texas Tribune, 4/2/26]
Paxton’s Hotel Guests Included Albanian Nationals And Previous Donors. According to the Texas Bullpen, “Terry and Jennifer Lacore, who run LACOR Enterprises, donated $75,000 to Paxton during his 2022 re-election campaign and have periodically paid for his air travel, per Texas Ethics Commission filings. The couple also maxed out in contributions — $7,000 each — to Paxton’s U.S. Senate campaign last year, according to Federal Election Commission records. Meanwhile, Mediu is a documented associate of Paxton and head of Albania’s Republican Party. Mediu has also worked extensively with Chris LaCivita, a former Trump strategist and current consultant for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, and LaCivita credited Mediu for connecting him to the nation’s political scene. Ulaj and his brothers own Gener 2, an umbrella company that owns construction, energy, and telecommunications entities, including A2 CNN. And Sen. Paxton, according to a source close to the Paxton family, stayed in a separate room as part of the broader block at the hotel because she and Ken Paxton had already separated. Sen. Paxton had attended oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 15 with the attorney general over a law she had authored at the Legislature. One receipt showed that Keith Craft was also supposed to stay in the OAG block but did not arrive, leading to the charge to be originally made to the state’s card before Craft paid for it in July 2025. [Texas Bullpen, 4/2/26]
Paxton’s Initial Use Of Taxpayer Dollars Came To Light Due To An Audit That Coincided With Two Officials Resigning From His Office After “Errors And Mistakes.” According to The Texan, “On March 9, 2026, the comptroller’s office notified OAG Chief Financial Officer Michele Price that the delayed audit would proceed this year and cover transactions between December 1, 2024 and November 31, 2025. According to an internal OAG investigative report, two days later, OAG Chief of Staff Lesley French Henneke notified other OAG officials of ‘errors and mistakes’ related to hotel bookings for the presidential inauguration on January 20, 2025. The report notes that due to inclement weather, senior OAG officials were not able to travel for meetings related to President Donald Trump’s inauguration and oral arguments before the Supreme Court, and so hotel room reservations were given to private individuals, creating an ‘unacceptable appearance of impropriety.’ Two of those rooms were improperly billed to the OAG’s office before corrective measures were taken[...] Both French and Price have resigned from the OAG’s office.” [The Texan, 3/26/26]