Houston Chronicle is on the Case- "Harris County D.A. and County Judge Exchange Words"

 

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg exchanged heated words this week after Hidalgo publicly described Ogg's ongoing investigation of Hidalgo's staffers as a "political vendetta, a political exercise, under the guise of a criminal investigation."

The judge’s remarks were made during a Tuesday press conference urging childcare providers to apply for unspent COVID-19 relief funds.

The next morning, Hidalgo continued assailing Ogg's investigation in a tweet: "I expect this political exercise to continue through Election Day. She’ll have me indicted. Or name a 'special prosecutor' —an illusion of independence since those are still beholden to the DA. She did that before in a political prosecution that went nowhere. I’m not deterred."

Ogg responded on Thursday to Hidalgo’s comments in a statement: "We will try this case, like every other criminal case, in a court of law before a jury of peers, and we will look to them for a fair outcome. When all the evidence is seen by a trial court, justice will prevail; our work continues."

Hidalgo, who is up for reelection this November, argued Tuesday that Ogg's investigation is meant to derail her campaign.

"You have to think about the timing," Hidalgo said. "It's no coincidence this is happening in the middle of my reelection campaign. That in and of itself should make very clear that it's politically motivated, that it's meant to destruct, to destroy, to harm my campaign. To harm, to distract me."

Notably, Hidalgo and Ogg are both members of the Democratic Party. Ogg repeats the same talking points as her opponents in the Republican party, Hidalgo said.

"She comes to commissioners court time and time again, saying basically the talking points that my political opponents from the opposite party are using against me right now. She comes over and over again and says we're defunding the police, against all evidence. Because the evidence all shows that we're doing nothing but increase the budget for the police."

Both Hidalgo and Ogg slammed each other this week for speaking about the case publicly.

"It's been a constant stream of leaks, of litigating this out in the press, even when we were forbidden from responding,” Hidalgo said Tuesday. “When this was supposed to be a process that happened within the courts and within the justice system.”

Ogg responded with a similar accusation: "We do not fight out our differences in the streets or on social media and I will not try this case in the court of public opinion. We will try this case, like every other criminal case, in a court of law before a jury of peers."

Three Hidalgo staffers were charged in April in connection to a since-canceled $11 million contract for COVID-19 vaccine outreach, passed by Commissioners Court in June 2021.

Chief of staff Alex Triantaphyllis, policy director Wallis Nader and senior adviser Aaron Dunn each face felony charges of tampering and misuse of official information. Dunn since has left Hidalgo’s office. Each of the staffers served on the five-person county panel that evaluated proposals for the contract and later awarded it to a politically connected vendor, Elevate Strategies.

The indictments alleged the staffers helped steer the contract to Elevate Strategies by giving its owner, Felicity Pereyra, early access to bidding materials. Pereyra in the past has worked for Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia and other Democrats.

Elevate Strategies won the contract over the University of Texas Health Science Center, even though Elevate had no prior public health experience and proposed a higher cost. UT Health had received more points in an initial scoring competition before the panel selected Elevate Strategies.

Hidalgo later canceled the contract in September as Republicans on Commissioners Court raised questions about the process used to award it, though she maintained there was no wrongdoing.

Prosecutors and investigators have said Hidalgo's staff exchanged texts and emails with Pereyra as early as January 2021 about the vaccine campaign, weeks before the project was put out to bid, according to court documents made public during the investigation.

A January email from Nader and Triantaphyllis to Pereyra outlined a proposed campaign and said: “Let us know your thoughts and proposed budget after you’ve had a chance to review.” Elevate’s business records include a Jan. 14 email that said Hidalgo’s office had reached out about “managing a community outreach campaign to push us close to herd immunity.”

The county’s purchasing policy says it should not accept proposals from consultants or contractors who previously contributed to the project. Each of Hidalgo’s staffers signed paperwork swearing they followed that policy, which prosecutors allege they broke by consulting with Pereyra before the bidding process.

Defense attorneys for Hidalgo’s team, however, have argued the county judge’s office did not view Pereyra as a potential vendor for the outreach contract when it shared the materials, and investigators have conflated conversations the aides had with Pereyra about a separate, data-focused job with the outreach campaign at the center of the investigation.

Legal experts have said there needs to be intent for a criminal violation.

One of the documents sent to Pereyra, which outlined the outreach contract’s scope of work, was sent by mistake, they said. Their lawyers provided text messages and other records that showed they had chosen language that excluded the outreach verbiage before texting it to Pereyra, but the message included the outreach language. Triantaphyllis then told Nader he "must have communicated incorrectly about which one to send."

To see more CLICK HERE.

Alternate Title- Houston Chronicle Scared It May Be Forced to Take Side of One Political Ally Against Another Political Ally