Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) was previously scrutinized for potential perjury due to conflicting statements regarding his housing, aimed at maintaining his position as Texas’ highest-paid judge. He later faced claims of receiving a “double dip” by augmenting his senator salary with a state pension he had not disclosed for several years.
Background on Cornyn: his successor He was falling behind Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the upcoming Republican primary runoff for his current seat. In September 1991, Webb County sued him for conflict of interest since he served on the Texas Supreme Court while also presiding over the 4th Judicial District.
A report on June 13, 1992, from the San Antonio Light mentioned that the then-judge was sued before stepping down from his additional administrative judicial role.
This ongoing controversy started when Mr. Cornyn chose to keep his role as an administrative judge after winning a seat on the Texas Supreme Court. The extra compensation from his $18,000-a-year administrative position made him the state’s highest-paid judge for a brief period.
Webb County District Attorney Joe Rubio attempted to have Mr. Cornyn removed from his administrative responsibilities, but the lawsuit settled just before Mr. Cornyn agreed to resign. The court did not clarify whether he was legally obligated to have a residence within the 22-county jurisdiction.
During the short time he held both roles, Mr. Cornyn earned over $109,000, which was nearly three times his salary in 2026. He reportedly submitted contradictory affidavits regarding his residence to maintain both positions, triggering a perjury investigation by the Travis County District Attorney.
Cornyn is said to have completed four affidavits confirming his residence in Travis County yet also filed another asserting his residence in Bexar County to continue overseeing the Fourth Administrative Judicial District.
An article from June 12, 1992, in the Houston Post highlighted that the Travis County District Attorney, Ronald Earle, was reviewing documents concerning Cornyn’s efforts to keep his second judicial position.
In his attempt to transfer the legal issue from Laredo to Austin and in response to inquiries, Cornyn signed four affidavits claiming Austin as his legal residence.
Nonetheless, in his fifth sworn statement, he mentioned that he had not abandoned his legal residency in San Antonio.
Lawyers argued that Cornyn’s conflicting declarations in a 120-page document raised perjury charges since both cannot legally coexist. The judge reiterated that he was resigning from his second judicial role, which involved courts in 22 southern Texas counties. He also stated that state law does not explicitly mandate judges to live in the area they oversee, a contention opposed by other lawyers who claimed that it was never intended for the presiding judge to be located elsewhere.
Cornyn dismissed the allegations as “political harassment.”
“[It’s] an attempt to embarrass me. He would reject it virtually immediately,” the future senator told reporters.
After resigning from his second role in the 4th Administrative Judicial District in March 1992, the Travis County District Attorney chose not to file criminal charges in November due to insufficient evidence necessary for a conviction.
An article from November 18, 1992, noted: houston post Report:
The Travis County District Attorney’s Office announced it would not pursue criminal charges against Land Commissioner Garry Mauro and Texas Supreme Court Justice John Cornyn after months of investigations.
…
Mr. Cornyn was scrutinized due to various sworn statements he made about his residency.
Claire Dawson-Brown, in charge of the district attorney’s public order division at the time, stated that the investigation concluded without charges because of differing state laws concerning legal residency.
“We do not believe there is sufficient evidence for the perjury charge,” Brown commented then.
Cornyn managed to move past this issue and became Texas attorney general in 1999, then entered the Senate in 2002, where he is currently running against the present Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton.
However, concerns persist regarding the substantial government pension that Cornyn received while simultaneously earning over $174,000 a year as a senator, information that only surfaced after he modified his 2006 to 2010 disclosure reports in 2012 to account for previously omitted pension payments.
The national journal reported that last year, Cornyn supplemented his senator salary with three payments from his state pension received during his term as a Texas judge and elected official, a practice some financial watchdogs criticized as ‘double dipping.’
In 2012, Cornyn disclosed receiving $65,383 in public retirement benefits. The largest portion, $48,807, originated from the Texas Judicial Retirement System, linked to his tenure on the state Supreme Court. An additional $10,132 came from the Texas Employees Retirement System due to his brief period as state attorney general.
The National Journal reported:
Through a series of financial disclosure amendments he began submitting the previous July, Cornyn revealed an annual pension of $10,132 going back to 2006, which he did not include in earlier disclosures from 2006 to 2010.
He also reported retirement distributions of $6,444 from the Texas County and District Retirement System. According to his official biography, he served as a state district judge from 1985 to 1989 when he was appointed to oversee the Fourth Administrative District of Texas, managing justice administration across a 22-county area.
Since becoming a U.S. senator, Cornyn has received more than $1 million in Texas pension payments, based on his disclosures.
