FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2023
Media Contact: Sam Somogye
HOUSTON — Last night, the Texas Rangers issued five new search warrants to continue investigating the bid-rigging scandal perpetrated by County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s office. Over a year ago, it came to light that senior staff, including Judge Hidalgo’s chief of staff, allegedly rewarded an inexperienced, one-person Democrat consulting firm an $11 million contract in an apparent act of political favoritism at the cost of Harris County taxpayers.
Now, the evidence against Hidalgo’s senior staff, and potentially the county judge herself, has piled on significantly. Texas Rangers believe that Hidalgo’s staff used their personal phones to communicate about the Targeted Community Vaccine Outreach project with the Democrat owner of Elevate Strategies. Moreover, draft documents show Judge Hidalgo personally edited the scope of the project and mentioned the owner of the Democrat firm by name in her editing.
WhatsApp and SMS messages allegedly show that Hidalgo and her inner circle believed the Harris County Commissioners Court would vote against the project. Anticipating this, many believe they were prepared to use the county judge’s emergency authorization powers to bypass the democratic voting process and award the $11 million project, demonstrating a disgusting abuse of the powers entrusted to her by Harris County voters. If all this weren’t bad enough, it’s believed that WhatsApp messages were deleted after the initiation of the grand jury investigation in a deliberate attempt to cover their tracks.
“Whether it’s the White House or the Harris County Judge’s office, there appears to be an epidemic of corruption among high-level Democrat officials,” said Harris County GOP Chairman Cindy Siegel.
“Lina Hidalgo and her office have only been consistent on a few things — Abusing the powers of the office of the Harris County Judge, showing a complete disregard for voters, and doing everything they can to provide kickbacks for political allies at the expense of taxpayers.
“The County Judge owes us answers. She needs to get in front of a camera and answer some tough questions before she does it in front of a jury. Time and time again, she proves to be a lackluster and untruthful leader at best, as she has disgraced her office at every turn.
“This case isn’t going away anytime soon. I look forward to this investigation continuing and receiving the answers we are all owed.”
View the full press release HERE.
###