Top deputies to Attorney General Ken Paxton pushed out over sexual harassment allegations, lawsuit says

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Two of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s top deputies were forced to resign in 2023 over allegations of harassment, according to court filings included in a lawsuit Tuesday.

Judd Stone, the former solicitor general, and Chris Hilton, an assistant attorney general, were sued in federal court by Jordan Eskew, another former employee of the attorney general’s office. Eskew alleges that she was subjected to sexual harassment by Stone, and that Hilton verbally berated her and took no action to protect her from Stone’s inappropriate comments. The harassment took place, she said, while the three were on leave from the state agency to work on Paxton’s defense team during his 2023 impeachment trial.

“State law requires that the OAG and managers immediately take action to stop sexual harassment,” First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster wrote to another agency employee in December 2024, in an email that was included in the lawsuit. “Judd and Chris would be notified that they would be terminated if they did not resign.”

Stone and Hilton, through a spokesperson, said they left the attorney general’s office voluntarily because Webster was a “petty tyrant.”

“Brent Webster has a personal vendetta against Mr. Hilton and Mr. Stone,” said a spokesperson for their law firm, Stone Hilton. “This lawsuit is his creation and a complete fabrication.

The attorney general’s office in 2023 confirmed their exits, but did not give reason for their resignations.

Stone shared violent rape fantasies with Eskew, the complaint alleges. It also claims Stone regularly berated her calling her “white trash” in one instance; in another, it states that Stone “began screaming” at Eskew over a spreadsheet. The complaint describes Hilton as witnessing many of these interactions and failing to intervene.

Stone, who joined the attorney general’s office in 2021, was responsible for representing the state of Texas in court, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Hilton, who was hired in 2016, led the general litigation division.

After Paxton was acquitted by the Senate in September 2023, Stone, Hilton, Eskew and other employees who took leave to defend him returned to the attorney general’s office.

According to Webster’s email, which Eskew’s lawyer included in the complaint, two women who worked with Stone and Hilton during the impeachment in October separately reported “credible complaints of sexual misconduct.”

Webster said he notified Paxton, who was “shocked and appalled” at the allegations and agreed to take immediate action. Agency staff confronted Stone about the behavior, Webster wrote, and Stone “promptly admitted that all of the allegations were true.”

Webster said no further investigation was necessary since Stone had confessed to the behavior he was accused of. He added that the agency’s human resources staff said it was customary to allow employees accused of misconduct to resign in lieu of termination.

Stone and Hilton resigned on October 17, 2023. In their brief resignation letters, they gave no reason for their departures.

“It has been my distinct pleasure to serve the people of Texas,” Stone wrote.

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