Politifact confirmed what we knew was true all along: As Attorney General, Greg Abbott, the Republican candidate for Governor, approved a legal loophole that allowed his donors in the predatory lending business to run rampant, gouging Texans across the state.

“Abbott's office reaffirmed a way for politically supportive payday lenders to squeeze Texas borrowers.”

Abbott helped these predatory payday lenders expand their economically devastating, abusive, and often illegal businesses in exchange for campaign contributions. And the amount of pay-to-play cash Abbott has collected from these crooks is on the rise: $130,222 so far in 2014, bringing the total to a whopping $402,959 since 2009.

As we previously explained:

In 2006, Abbott issued a legal opinion exposing a loophole in Texas usury law that cleared the way for predatory lenders to take advantage of a more profitable provision and operate without limits on interest rates (charging rates in excess of 500%). Between 2006 and 2010, this Abbott-approved loophole helped the number of predatory lenders in Texas nearly triple from 1,279 sites to more than 3,500!