It also helped him land a lucrative job.
After the bill passed, officials with the Harris County probation department turned to Whitmire, paying him more than $80,000 to help explain the legal changes. They required probation rather than prison time for some criminals.
The episode spurred two government investigations into whether he was paid with state funds, which would have violated the state Constitution. Neither led to any action taken against Whitmire.
The consulting deal is perhaps the most high-profile example of Whitmire blurring lines between his public and private roles. But it is far from the only one over his half-century in office.
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Several other consulting and lobbying gigs in the 1990s produced similar conflict-of-interest questions, leading to various levels of scandal that drew ink in the city’s newspapers – but never any…
