AUSTIN, Texas — Former Congressman Blake Farenthold answered to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's request that he pay for the June 30 special election — No.

The decision to call the election was Abbott's, Farenthold said in a letter of his own, dated Tuesday.

RELATED | Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold abruptly resigns

Farenthold’s four-page letter to Abbott on Wednesday says there was no need for him to call the special election.

Abbott called for a special election to fill Farenthold's seat in early April. He later asked him to reimburse the counties holding the election in his former district.

"Since I didn't call it and I don't think it's necessary, I shouldn't be asked to pay for it," the letter states. 

Farenthold also argued that his use of taxpayer funds was not wrong, since he took the money from a fund specifically dedicated toward settlement payouts. He said in his letter that lawyers advised him against using his own money to pay the settlement as it would be "illegal and unethical."

"The way I understood it, my paying personally to resolve a dispute that I believed was totally frivolous could have been considered a bribe to the plaintiff to drop the suit," he wrote.

The Corpus Christi Republican previously announced his retirement in December amid sexual harassment allegations, but in early April, abruptly resigned. 

Michael Rekola, who was Farenthold's communications director in 2015, described the congressman as verbally abusive and sexually demeaning.

Rekola said he gave his two weeks’ notice after Farenthold made sexually crude comments about his wife.

In 2014, another former communications director for Farenthold sued him for sexual harassment which ended with a settlement. Farenthold used $84,000 in taxpayer funds to settle the lawsuit.

Farenthold has apologized for angry outbursts but continues to deny sexual harassment allegations.