Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen won’t face criminal charges for offering media credentials in exchange for campaign help to unseat incumbent members that included three from the Brazos Valley.
Brazoria County district attorney Jeri Yenne released a two page statement detailing her decision to investigate and the outcome of the investigation from the secretly recorded meeting by Empower Texans CEO Michael Quinn Sullivan with Bonnen and former Texas House GOP caucus chairman Dustin Burrows.
The recording, which was released by Sullivan last week, included Bonnen offering Sullivan media credentials in exchange for Sullivan’s group…according to Yenne’s statement…”politically targeting a list of certain Republican House Members in the upcoming 2020 election.”
As previously reported by WTAW News, three of those targeted members were John Raney of Bryan, Kyle Kacal of College Station, and Trent Ashby of Lufkin.
Yenne said the June 12th meeting “raised the issue of whether Speaker Bonnen committed certain crimes under Title 8 of the Texas Penal Code, such as Bribery or the misdemeanor of Solicitation of a Gift by a Public Servant.”
Yenne concluded “As repugnant as Speaker Bonnen’s actions and statements are, I do not believe there is sufficient evidence from the June 12, 2019 meeting to warrant a criminal prosecution”.
Yenne also stated “The disparaging statements of Speaker Bonnen about local government officials, cities and counties and the statements of Representative Burrows indicating his hatred of cities and counties and his intent to harm local governments in the next Legislative Session are disappointing and disturbing.”
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A district attorney says Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen won’t face criminal charges for offering House media credentials in exchange for campaign help.
Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne released a statement Thursday calling Bonnen’s actions and statements “repugnant” but said there isn’t enough evidence to warrant criminal prosecution.
Bonnen was facing a state police investigation into allegations of misconduct after the release of a secretly recorded conversation in which he sought help ousting members of his own party in 2020 and used foul language to disparage Democrats.
Bonnen announced on Tuesday he will not run for re-election as speaker or his House seat after a growing number of Republicans called for his resignation.
The scandal has thrown Republicans into disarray at a time when their state dominance is slipping.