Updated at 12:45 p.m. on Friday with additional messages sent between Blake Farenthold and the Calhoun Port Authority.

WASHINGTON — Nearly a month after abruptly resigning from Congress in the wake of revelations over lewd and verbally abusive behavior, former Corpus Christi Rep. Blake Farenthold had been angling for several days to get a lobbying job at a port authority in his district.

And he appeared to be getting antsy.

"What's up with the lawyers?" Farenthold wrote to Calhoun Port Authority director Charles Hausmann in an April 30 email, which was obtained by The Dallas Morning News through an open records request. "I'm ready to get work for y'all.

"Any problems that I should know about?"

Farenthold ended up landing the gig this month. He started Monday as a $160,000-a-year legislative liaison who will seek to boost the port's "presence and visibility in Washington."

The new position — which Farenthold announced in a radio interview — has created a stir in South Texas and beyond, in no small part because the former congressman said this week that he would not repay $84,000 in taxpayer money used to settle a sexual harassment suit against him.

While unknowns remain about how exactly the port position came together, records obtained by The News shed some new light on Farenthold's pursuit of the job.

Farenthold communicated with the Calhoun Port Authority as early as April 16, less than two weeks after he resigned from Congress. He offered to appear before the port's board. He was eager to get started, saying, "My hands are tied until you hire me."

"Any luck getting me officially hired today or tomorrow so I can try and work some magic here in Florida?" he wrote to Hausmann on April 20.

"When it rains, it pours," he wrote to Hausmann when the port director told him that his work on Farenthold's contract had been tied up by a ship channel being closed.

"Any problems you see?" he wrote to Hausmann on May 3 when told that the port's board would need to approve the deal.

"Most everything is negotiable," he wrote on May 9 in a text message to a port official named Randy — likely Randy Boyd, the port's board chairman.

Farenthold, in a brief phone interview, said that he's "a private citizen now" and is "trying to not be a news item anymore." He declined to comment on what the Florida reference meant. He didn't dispute the general timeline for how he obtained his new employment.

"I started looking for a job as soon as I was out of office," he said.

Hausmann, the port director, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

But the port said earlier this week that "Blake has always been a strong supporter of the Calhoun Port Authority and is familiar with the issues facing the port." It said Farenthold would work with lawmakers, the Army Corps of Engineers and other policymakers.

Farenthold resigned from Congress on April 6 as the House Ethics Committee looked into his use of $84,000 in taxpayer funds to settle an ex-staffer's 2014 sexual harassment claim.

The Republican had announced in December that he would not seek re-election, admitting that when he had been first elected, he had had "no idea how to run a congressional office." He apologized for a workplace culture that was "too permissive and decidedly unprofessional."

"It accommodated destructive gossip, offhand comments, off-color jokes and behavior that in general was less than professional," he said.

But pressure continued to mount on Farenthold, particularly amid his refusal to repay the settlement money after an earlier vow to do so. That dispute continued even after he resigned, with Gov. Greg Abbott demanding that Farenthold pay for the special election called to fill his seat.

The issue resurfaced this week when Farenthold told ABC News that had no intention of repaying the settlement money.

"I will say this on the record: I have been advised by my attorneys not to repay that," he told ABC News. "That's why it hasn't been repaid."

It remains to be seen how that decision will affect the Calhoun Port Authority — and Farenthold's work there — going forward. The records obtained by The News included many angry emails from individuals in South Texas and across the U.S. over the hiring.