Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo blames DA Kim Ogg for investigation into her office; Ogg fires back
Judge Lina Hidalgo addresses investigation
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is responding today to the five new search warrants obtained by Texas Rangers in the investigation into claims of "bid rigging" in the Judge's office involving an $11 million contract. It's a story FOX 26 Political Reporter Greg Groogan first broke yesterday and Damali Keith reports more on Hidalgo's response.
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is responding today to the five new search warrants obtained by Texas Rangers in the investigation into claims of "bid rigging" in the Judge's Office involving an $11 million contract. It's a story FOX 26 Political Reporter Greg Groogan first broke yesterday.
"The interest here is not truth. It's not justice. It's politics," says Judge Hidalgo.
SUGGESTED: Texas Rangers granted new search warrants in Harris Co. bid-rigging probe
Affidavits revealing new search warrants served directly to communications companies including AT&T, Google, Verizon, and WhatsApp accuse Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo's office of failing to turn over all requested messages in the ongoing investigation, which Judge Hidalgo says just isn't true.
"Don't you think somebody would have already said, 'Hey, the judge is telling me not to share information that we're supposed to share?' Obviously, we gave everything we had, and we even asked what more do you need," Judge Hidalgo adds.
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This probe into accusations of bid-rigging comes after Felicity Pereyra's company, Elevate Strategies, was granted an $11 million COVID campaign contract.
"I'd never met Felicity before when she made the presentation, I was like, man. This is really, really well done. Even if I was being nefarious, which I'm not, I could have just given her the contract unilaterally," explains Judge Hidalgo. "I have nothing to gain from her... In fact, Greg Groogan was repeating this again, which has been debunked so many times that the other firm scored higher than the firm that was awarded the contract. That has already been proven false time and time again."
Three of the judge's former staff members are under federal indictment in connection with the case.
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"They've not been found guilty of anything because they're not guilty of anything. This is just the same dirty politics she's been playing for years," the judge says.
The 'she' Judge Hidalgo is referring to is Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg. "She's abused the power of her office the way a bully would abuse size on a playground...It's not an investigative exercise. It's a political exercise, and it's an exercise of her looking to protect her political interests at all costs," says Hidalgo.
DA Ogg released the following statement saying:
"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."