Ken Paxton is yet again embroiled in scandal after he was caught using taxpayer dollars to buy hotel rooms in Washington, D.C. for campaign donors and Albanian business associates at President Trump’s inauguration.
“Texans keep learning about shady things Ken Paxton’s been hiding from them. Using Texas tax dollars to put Albanian businessmen up in hotel rooms is just the latest example,” said NRSC Communications Director Joanna Rodriguez.
As reported by the Texas Bullpen:
The Texas attorney general’s office on Wednesday released receipts, emails, and other documents pertaining to a room block in Washington, D.C., for President Trump’s inauguration last year.
The newly acquired records, sent to Texas Bullpen in response to a records request, include a working — but undated — list compiled by the hotel of people slated to stay in the room block, including individuals outside of the agency who were to “pay on own.” The list included:
- Terry Lacore – CEO of LACORE Enterprises and Paxton donor
- Jennifer Lacore – Lacore Family Foundation trustee, Terry Lacore’s wife, and Paxton donor
- Bashkim Ulaj – Albanian businessman
- Fatmir Mediu – Albanian politician
- Angela Paxton – Texas state senator and Ken Paxton’s soon-to-be ex-wife
Additional documentation provided by the agency shows Keith Craft, a Frisco pastor, later replaced someone in the room block.
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The newly released records shed additional light on the latest controversy at the agency after two senior-level staffers — Lesley French Henneke, who served as chief of staff, and Michele Price, who served as chief financial officer — resigned amid an investigation into how 2025 hotel reservations were handled.
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Last week, Texas Bullpen obtained an internal OAG report asserting that those hotel rooms had been released to non-government individuals after several OAG employees were unable to travel due to inclement weather.
“[T]he hotel would substitute the private individual’s name and transfer the room and billing to the private individuals,” the report said. “The intent was to relieve the OAG of its financial obligation for the unused rooms.”
The internal investigation at the agency had been triggered by an audit initiated by Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock in March. After the audit was started, French told others in OAG leadership that two rooms released to private citizens had still been charged to the OAG after the reservations went unused.
Terry and Jennifer Lacore, who run LACOR Enterprises, donated $75,000 to Paxton during his 2022 re-election campaign and have periodically paid for his air travel, per Texas Ethics Commission filings. The couple also maxed out in contributions — $7,000 each — to Paxton’s U.S. Senate campaign last year, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Meanwhile, Mediu is a documented associate of Paxton and head of Albania’s Republican Party…
One receipt showed that Keith Craft was also supposed to stay in the OAG block but did not arrive, leading to the charge to be originally made to the state’s card before Craft paid for it in July 2025.
Another receipt matching the cost of the room designated for Jennifer Lacore on the master receipt suggests that she never checked into her own room (presumably because she shared a room with her husband), but paid the associated costs in July 2025 as well.
These payments came after former Comptroller Glenn Heger opened an audit into the OAG, which was subsequently postponed by Hancock until after the March 2026 primaries.
While the non-agency personnel paid for the rooms and the state was fully reimbursed, the “errors and mistakes related to hotel bookings,” according to the OAG report, “created a serious appearance of impropriety.”
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