A Texas House committee on Wednesday heard explosive new testimony from lawyers investigating Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, including that he appeared to provide a friend with confidential FBI documents and committed other potentially impeachable crimes in an effort to help him retaliate against business competitors and federal officials.

Many of the details are part of a whistleblower suit that accuses Paxton of firing four top aides as retaliation after they reported the alleged misconduct to federal authorities.

The FBI is reportedly looking into those claims, but Wednesday’s testimony painted the fullest picture yet of the multiple ways in which Paxton allegedly leveraged the resources of his office to help the friend and campaign donor, Nate Paul. Paul, an Austin real estate investor, donated $25,000 to Paxton’s re-election campaign in 2018......

The House investigators, a group of five attorneys with experience in public integrity law and white collar crime, said they reviewed hundreds of pages of documents, including emails, contracts and criminal complaints, and interviewed 15 people. All but one stated they had “grave concerns” regarding Paxton showing hostility or retaliation toward them for their participation.

Paxton signed a settlement with the whistleblowers in February for $3.3 million, but the deal is effectively dead because the Legislature has declined to fund it this session, which whistleblowers have said was a condition of the agreement. The session ends May 29. The whistleblowers' attorneys have asked the Texas Supreme Court to continue on with the suit.