On December 6, 2022, former KTSM reporter Christina Aguayo filed a lawsuit against Veronica Escobar alleging that Veronica Escobar sent “repetitive emails” and made “repetitive phone calls” to KTSM’s management “demanding” that KTSM fire her. Aguayo also alleged that Escobar slandered her to the television station’s management. She was fired from KTSM on February 8, 2022.
According to Candelaria’s termination letter, Aguayo was fired “for engaging in conduct that tends to bring you, the company, the station [KTSM] and the station’s sponsors into a negative public light.”
In addition to Escobar, Aguayo named Nexstar Media Group, which owns KTSM, and station employees Andra Litton, Tim Gutierrez, Chris Babcock, Natassia Paloma and Darren Hunt as parties to her complaint.
On July 28, 2021, KTSM hired Christina Aguayo, and she began reporting news on air in early September 2021. According to her court filing, Aguayo says that she “diligently performed her assigned duties consisting of preparing and broadcasting various news stories.” She added that KTSM’s management approved her stories in advance. She added in her lawsuit that KTSM held her “in high regard” until things changed on October 21, 2021. On that day, Aguayo interviewed Ken Paxton.
As Aguayo explains in her lawsuit, she arrived at the station to begin the interview with Paxton. Upon her arrival, Andra Litton gave her a list of questions to ask Paxton during the interview. Aguayo wrote that Litton, the assignments manager at the time and Tim Gutierrez the news director at the time “instructed” Aguayo to “blindside” Paxton by asking the questions that Litton had prepared. According to Aguayo’s lawsuit, it was “normal and customary in the television reporting industry” to provide “political figures” a list of pre-approved questions. The questions Litton prepared had not been provided to Paxton in advance.
Was It Appropriate For Aguayo To Provide Politician Questions Beforehand?
It is generally understood that providing an interviewee with questions to be asked ahead of time is not proper for journalists. It is a competing issue between consultants managing the politician and the journalist. The consultants want the politician to be prepared for the interview while the journalist wants to record a spontaneous response to a question to include in their news report.
According to NBCU Academy, an online education tool for journalists, news reporters “should never give exact questions to an interviewee in advance.” Instead of providing the questions, a journalist should give them “a list of general topics of discussion.”
Likewise, The Journalist’s Resource says that “it is not good professional practice to give questions in advance to sources such as public figures.” Also, American Public Media agrees that “journalists should not tell interview subjects the questions they plan to ask.”
Regardless, Aguayo alleges in her lawsuit that she did not ask the questions that Gutierrez and Litton had demanded her to use. The station aired the Paxton interview on October 28, 2021. According to Aguayo, KTSM removed the Paxton interview the following day from the website “at the insistence” of Escobar. Aguayo explains that after she asked David Candelaria, the station’s general manager, if he had the story removed, he denied it and ordered that the Paxton story be put back on the station’s website.
Aguayo continues in her lawsuit that after the story was placed back on the website, Escobar called the station to complain. She alleges that Escobar was “angry” about the Paxton story because it “did not contain information regarding the legal troubles” that Paxton was facing. According to Aguayo, Escobar demanded that Candelaria remove her from any on air stories.
Aguayo adds in her lawsuit that since the Paxton story, Escobar complained “repeatedly to Mr. Candelaria” about her, and “repeatedly” demanded that KTSM remove her from the air. Aguayo wrote in her lawsuit that Candelaria read her “texts and email” that Escobar sent to him numerous times each week. The messages contained complaints about Aguayo.
Aguayo wrote that she found out that “multiple false and defamatory stories about her were published on various social media platforms,” which, she writes, were published on the social media pages of the Democratic Party and on the now defunct Lionstar Blog. Aguayo alleges that the online harassment continued until she was fired by the station on February 8, 2022.
According to Aguayo, Gutierrez “admitted” to her that two individuals were behind the online harassment of her. One was Dora Oaxaca, then that chairwoman of the El Paso Democratic Party.
In her lawsuit, Aguayo goes on to detail three other news reports that she conducted on November 9, 2021, of Tony Gonzalez, followed by a Greg Abbott interview on November 20, 2021 and another of Irene Armendariz-Jackson. All three interviews led to Escobar complaining to Candelaria about Aguayo. Candelaria complained to Aguayo that he was getting tired of Escobar “blowing up his phone and email” about her news reports.
Telling Aguayo that he was “exhausted” from Escobar’s angry calls, Calendaria extended Aguayo’s 90-day probation period by another 30 days “solely based on the constant angry communications” from Escobar, according to the lawsuit.
After a February 1, 2022, interview Aguayo made of former U.S. Border Patrol agent, Bill Jackson, the husband of Irene Armendariz-Jackson, Aguayo wrote that Escobar again “sent numerous emails and text messages” complaining about Aguayo and demanding that the station terminate her.
The following day Aguayo wrote that she sent Escobar an email asking her for an interview. The following day, Aguayo wrote that she received an email from Escobar’s Special Project Director stating:
“Good afternoon, Christina. Thank you for reaching out. I’m so sorry if KTSM didn’t inform you, but months ago your supervisors and my office agreed that given your track record of dishonest reporting, Congresswoman Escobar will not be grating you any interviews. My best, Elizabeth.”
Two days after airing a story about a Trump rally, Aguayo writes that she was terminated from KTSM.
The February 8, 2022 letter terminating her from KTSM stated that Aguayo was fired “for engaging in conduct that tends to bring you, the company, the station and the station’s sponsors into a negative light, jeopardizes the reputation or success of the company, or otherwise reflects unfavorably on the company.”
After Aguayo filed her lawsuit in state court, the arbitration provision in her employment contract kicked in. Her attorney’s letter dated October 11, 2022 to the arbitrator alleges that Aguayo was “wrongfully terminated.” The letter goes on to detail the allegations she made in the lawsuit and adds that the stories that led to her firing “were approved in advance by the station’s management.”
It is not known what the result of the arbitration Aguayo filed against KTSM was. However, in an email dated October 26, 2022, from Eduardo Lerma, Chief of Staff for Escobar, the congresswoman refused to participate in the arbitration.
Escobar’s refusal to participate likely led to the civil lawsuit, Aguayo filed in Dallas County on December 6, 2022 naming Escobar the defendant in her firing.
Escobar Federal Lawsuit
In her lawsuit against Escobar, Aguayo levies the same allegations that she was fired by KTSM at the behest of Escobar. About three months later, on March 10, 2023, the civil case was transferred to federal court under the Westfall Act. According to the filing, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas had determined that Escobar “was acting within her scope of her office,” as the congresswoman for El Paso, for the allegations levied by Aguayo.
In essence, Escobar was officially working under the authority of the government when Aguayo alleged, she interfered with her job. This is not to say that Escobar was acting for the government but rather that her duties as a congresswoman afforded her legal protection as part of her official duties.
On January 18, 2024, Aguayo’s lawsuit was dismissed in federal court. The Court concluded that Escobar – if Aguayo’s allegations are to be believed – “disagreed with Aguayo’s news reporting on political matters that affected her constituents.” The Court added that “Escobar’s alleged conduct does not exceed the scope of her employment as a member of Congress.”
The Court opined that even if Aguayo’s allegations of Escobar having her fired from KTSM were true, it was within Escobar’s purview as a congresswoman to demand she be fired because her reporting affected Escobar’s constituents.
The Court dismissed the case under the government’s sovereign immunity doctrine. Sovereign immunity protects the government from being sued.
It is important to note that the lawsuit filed by Aguayo did not conclude that Escobar had her fired. Instead, the civil case’s outcome only determined that if Escobar had Aguayo fired by KTSM, she was doing so as the congresswoman protecting the interests of her constituency.
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Was Aguayo Fired For Misconduct?
Because Aguayo’s case was dismissed by the federal courts under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, the allegations she levies against Escobar and KTSM remain unproven. A review of court records in Dallas and El Paso does not show any additional civil cases filed by Aguayo against Nexstar or any of the individuals named in her lawsuit.
Was Aguayo fired for cause from KTSM? This is important to understand as it adds context to the allegations she makes in her lawsuit.
Although Candelaria’s letter firing her alleges that Aguayo was fired “for engaging in conduct” that tends to bring disrepute to the station, it was not established that Aguayo was fired for the alleged misconduct as Candelaria alleged in the letter. According to Aguayo’s attorney, after being fired, Aguayo “applied for and received unemployment benefits under Texas law, which Nexstar did not contest on the ground that Ms. Aguayo’s termination was cause by misconduct.”
Texas law defines employment misconduct as “intentional violation of a policy or rule adopted to ensure the orderly work,” among other definitions. Nexstar has a policy against bringing disrepute to the station as per the termination letter and the employment contract that Aguayo signed when she was hired.
Because it appears that Nexstar did not contest Aguayo’s unemployment benefits then the question arises about whether Aguayo was fired for misconduct as her termination letter alleges, or was she fired because Veronica Escobar demanded as the former reporter alleges.
Aguayo levied several allegations against Escobar in the “factual background” narrative in her lawsuit. Because of perjury liabilities and because background facts are presumed to be accurate in a lawsuit, it must be assumed that the allegations Aguayo details are likely true absent a counter response from Escobar, Candelaria or the news station.
We asked KTSM for comment about the allegations levied by Aguayo. In an email response, KTSM responded that anyone with questions should “read the decision and the case’s outcome.”
Christina Aguayo did not respond to our request for comments by the time of publication. Should she choose to respond at a later date, we follow up on the story.
This is not the first time that KTSM has faced criticism for its employment activities.
In September 2023 we reported that former KTSM reporter, Roxy Van Ruiten, was reprimanded for filing a complaint against a convicted sexual offender Gabriel Medrano who was working at the station. Van Ruiten abruptly left the station in October 2023 for unknown reasons.
It is unclear if Medrano remains at the station.
Aguayo Fact Checked
Since January 24, 2022 Aguayo has been running an online publication she produces and reports news on. Her reports tend to support Republican talking points on the issues she reports on. Most of her posts are posted to her Facebook page. Her main topics include Joe Biden, immigration, Donald Trump and Greg Abbott.
Her last post on Aguayo News was a story about alleged indictments being filed against Hillary Clinton, James Comey and the CIA over the so-called Russiagate controversy on July 30, 2025. Most recently Aguayo has been prolific on her posts on her Facebook page including an August 9 Facebook post which exaggerates that a judge placed a “lien on all Robert Francis O’Rourke’s money and property.” Aguayo was referring to the temporary restraining order (TRO) placed by Tarrant County Judge Megan Fahey prohibiting O’Rourke and his PAC from helping to pay for the expenses of the Democrats who have left Texas to keep the Texas House from meeting.
Last week, Ken Paxton filed a law suit against O’Rourke alleging that O’Rourke’s PAC was illegally supporting the quorum breakers. The judge’s TRO prohibits O’Rourke and his PAC but does not place a lien on his property as Aguayo suggests on her post.
Earlier this year, Aguayo was the subject of a fact check () after she posted that Joe Biden issued a pardon to the officer that shot Ashli Babbitt. There is no evidence that Biden pardoned the officer.
Previously, on April 30, 2021, Aguayo was fact checked on her story alleging that a book by Kamala Harris was being given to migrant children as part of a false conspiracy alleging that Harris was illegally profiting from the book through taxpayer funds.
A video posted on Youtube in 2020 accusing Anthony Fauci of being “part of the Deep State” went viral. Aguayo anchored the segment for America’s Daily Report, where she interviewed GOP candidate, Shiva Ayyadurai, who has falsely claimed that he invented email.
Ayyadurai provided misinformation about COVID-19 during the pandemic.
Although Aguayo’s lawsuit alleges that her firing by KTSM made it difficult to get another television job, she returned to television news reporting on Michigan’s 910 News as an anchor on April 4, 2024. Her last on-air report for 910 News appears to have been on May 16, 2024. She has since been removed from the station’s website.