DA Kim Ogg (L), Lina Hidalgo
Embattled Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo lashed out at Democrat District Attorney Kim Ogg after the Texas Rangers opened a new tampering investigation into Hidalgo’s $11 million no-bid ‘vaccine outreach’ contract.
Texas Rangers opened a new tampering investigation into far-left Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s $11 million no-bid vaccine contract last week.
Hidalgo’s office is embroiled in a bid-rigging scandal.
Lina Hidalgo’s top three staffers were indicted in April 2022 after prosecutors expanded the investigation into an $11 million ‘vaccine outreach contract’ awarded to one of the judge’s political cronies.
While Hidalgo was threatening to jail and fine people for violating her Covid rules, she was secretly trying to award one of her political cronies, Felicity Pereyra, who founded Elevate Strategies, an $11 million ‘vaccine outreach’ contract.
Hidalgo ultimately panicked and canceled the $11 million vaccine contract after questions were raised that it was with a one-person firm with no experience.
Hidalgo’s Chief of Staff Alex Triantaphyllis and Policy Director Wallis Nader along with co-defendant Aaron Dunn were charged with misuse of official information and tampering with government documents in connection with the canceled vaccine outreach contract.
Judge Lina Hidalgo with indicted Chief of Staff Alex Triantaphyllis
According to Click2Houston, Texas Rangers, the same agency that initially conducted a raid of Hidalgo’s office, opened a new public corruption investigation after Hidalgo “concealed” records subpoenaed in a grand jury’s probe of the judge’s $11 million no-bid contract.
The search warrants were unsealed on Thursday according to the outlet.
The outlet reported that one of the Texas Rangers wrote in the search warrant that “it was discovered that numerous documents and communications that were ordered to be produced by Grand Jury subpoena had been concealed and made unavailable during the earlier Grand Jury proceedings.”
Lina Hidalgo accused Kim Ogg of dirty politics and called her a bully during a news conference.
WATCH:
Kim Ogg responded to Lina Hidalgo in a statement:
“County Judge Hidalgo’s outburst today was nothing more than an attempted deflection from the facts and evidence that led to the initial indictment of her staffers. She conflated an ongoing Texas Rangers criminal investigation with her political endorsement of my challenger and engaged in a childish exercise in name-calling that has become all too common in our political process. Using her status as county judge to launch this diatribe is an unfortunate attempt to taint the investigative process and to confuse the public. It also serves her indicted staffers very poorly. My office pursues evidence-based prosecutions, regardless of political party, and we look forward to resolving this case in court.”
Last year Lina Hidalgo and Kim Ogg got into a public feud.
Hidalgo trashed DA Kim Ogg in a press conference last year after she accused her of threatening her reelection by floating a possible indictment.
WATCH
The DA has an agenda, and that agenda is not justice–it’s political. This isn’t the first time she pursues a political vendetta under the guise of a criminal investigation. pic.twitter.com/KBJOvbVfh2
— Lina Hidalgo (@LinaHidalgoTX) May 17, 2022
Kim Ogg responded to Lina Hidalgo’s smear campaign and warned her to keep her mouth shut about the ongoing investigation.
