Talarico campaign will ask court to unseal Paxton’s depositions in energy investing dispute

James Talarico's U.S. Senate campaign plans to ask a Collin County court Wednesday to unseal deposition transcripts from Attorney General Ken Paxton tied to a years-old securities fraud dispute.

The depositions, given in 2019 and 2022, stem from a legal fight involving Paxton, his financial adviser, and former business associates. The case traces back to 2016, when Charles Loper III, who oversees Paxton's blind trust, accused an energy company called Unity Resources and two of its investors, Byron Cook and Joel Hochberg, of fraud. Loper alleged Cook and Hochberg ran a scheme to profit off the arrangement, with the case centering partly on alleged securities fraud.

The move puts pressure on what Paxton has said publicly about his financial dealings. Talarico, the Democratic nominee, is betting that whatever is in those sealed transcripts is worth a court fight to expose. Paxton has not faced consequences from this particular case in any way described in the available record, but the existence of two separate depositions over three years signals the dispute was not simple or quick.

The petition targets sealed court records in Collin County, where Paxton has deep political roots and where a judge will now have to decide whether the public gets to see what he said under oath.