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Texas Democrats Sue Over Michael Quinn Sullivan And House Speaker Dennis Bonnen Meeting

Speaker Dennis Bonnen in the House Chamber on March 27, 2019, the day the House will take up HB1, the 2020-21 budget plan.
Emree Weaver
/
The Texas Tribune
Speaker Dennis Bonnen in the House Chamber on March 27, 2019, the day the House will take up HB1, the 2020-21 budget plan.

Texas Democrats are suing over a June 12 meeting House Speaker Dennis Bonnen had in June with one of his top lieutenants and Michael Quinn Sullivan, a hardline conservative activist, saying the three were engaged in serious campaign finance violations and demanding that Sullivan produce a full recording of the gathering that he has shared with only a small group of Republicans.

Sullivan, along with Bonnen and state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, are named as defendants in the suit filed by the Texas Democratic Party. All three are Republicans.

Filed in Travis County District Court, the suit claims that Sullivan, along with Bonnen and Burrows, effectively created a political committee during their meeting by discussing the targeting of certain Republicans in the 2020 primaries. That committee was not registered with the state, the lawsuit claims — one of a suite of campaign finance violations the lawsuit alleges.

Sullivan has accused Bonnen and Burrows, who chairs the House GOP Caucus, of offering Sullivan’s group, Empower Texans, long-denied House media credentials in exchange for politically targeting 10 Republicans in the upcoming election cycle. Sullivan later revealed he secretly recorded the meeting, though he has not yet publicly released it. Bonnen has forcefully pushed back on Sullivan’s account of the meeting. Burrows has not yet publicly weighed in.

State Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos, a freshman Democrat from Richardson, has signed on as a plaintiff since she is allegedly mentioned in Sullivan’s recording of the meeting, the lawsuit says.

“Texans deserve to know what happens in their government on their dime,” Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the party, said in a statement, “and that elected officials are getting their job done, not scheming to abuse power.”

The defendants are also alleging that the meeting itself was illegal, since it occurred at the Texas Capitol.

Bonnen, along with a number of Republicans and Democrats, have called on Sullivan to release the entire recording. It’s unclear if and when Sullivan will do so.

Meanwhile, the powerful House General Investigating Committee, which has subpoena powers, is set to launch an investigation into the allegations. The committee is scheduled to meet Monday.

The Texas Tribune provided this story.

Copyright 2019 KERA

Emma Platoff is a breaking news reporter at The Texas Tribune. She previously worked at the Tribune as a reporting fellow and is a recent graduate of Yale University, where she studied English literature and nonfiction writing. She has also worked as the managing editor of the Yale Daily News and as an intern at The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Hartford Courant.
Cassandra Pollock is an engagement reporter for The Texas Tribune, which she joined in June 2017 after a stint as a fellow during the 85th Texas Legislature. She graduated in 2017 from The University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism. Cassi has previously reported for The Daily Texan, the university’s official student newspaper, and The Washington Examiner in Washington, D.C.