Ken Paxton's office diverted state-funded inauguration hotel rooms to major donors, leaving two stays billed to taxpayers

On January 20, 2025, the Texas Office of the Attorney General booked and occupied a nonrefundable block of ten hotel rooms at a Washington, D.C. Courtyard Marriott — costing the state over $20,000 — to house agency staff attending Trump's presidential inauguration and related Supreme Court arguments. When a winter storm prevented several employees from reaching the capital, the agency faced approximately $16,000 in unusable, nonrefundable hotel bookings.

Rather than follow agency transfer protocols, the office informally reassigned unused rooms to Paxton's political allies and major donors. Recipients included Terry and Jennifer Lacore (documented major Paxton campaign donors), Bashkim Ulaj (an Albanian businessman), Fatmir Mediu (chair of the Albanian Republican Party), and Keith Craft (lead pastor of Elevate Life Church in Frisco, Texas). State Sen. Angela Paxton — in Washington for the Supreme Court arguments on a bill she had authored — also received a room but paid her own expenses. At least two guests had their stays charged to the agency without payment; the agency ultimately paid $8,339 for rooms that served private individuals with documented financial or political ties to Paxton. The private citizens' bookings notionally saved the agency $7,296 against the full nonrefundable exposure, but the arrangement bypassed any competitive or procedural controls.

Internal concerns developed over the following year. By October 2025, CFO Michele Price and Chief of Staff Lesley French were exchanging internal emails about the discrepancies, warning that the hotel reassignments "could potentially be misconstrued in an audit." A state comptroller routine post-payment audit had been opened in June 2025. After the March 3, 2026 primary election, Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock reopened the audit. French resigned after alerting senior officials to "errors and mistakes"; Price resigned days later. Neither cited the audit or investigation in their resignation letters.

Updates

2026-04-02 — Texas Tribune investigation disclosed hotel room diversion to donors, two unpaid stays billed to state [1]

The Texas Tribune published an investigation based on open-records documents and an internal agency report, publicly disclosing the hotel room diversion to named donors, the two unpaid stays billed to the state, and the resignations of CFO Michele Price and Chief of Staff Lesley French over audit-exposure concerns. Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock had reopened the state audit shortly before the investigation published.