In the ongoing 2-year COVID vaccine bid rigging saga, new revelations have come from the search warrants showing Hidalgo’s staffers planning on throwing her under the bus when “s#@t hits the fan”.
Following the new findings that Hidalgo and staffers used encrypted messaging devices in order to possibly conceal their wrongdoing, many constituents have called for the resignation of the disgraced Judge who’s laundry list of questionable actions has cost the County taxpayers $100s of thousands of dollars for legal representation of the indicted staffers.
In Commissioners Court this Tuesday, constituent Richard Welch demanded that Hidalgo resign.
“Since your taking of office your administration has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on “consultants”, jail overcrowding grew exponentially, multiple felony offenders turned loose on PR bonds that committed even more felonies, crime is up and you’ve went absent for over a month.
Your solution to fighting crime is spending Taxpayer dollars to paint murals on buildings and build bike trails. Our money would’ve been better spent purchasing a BAT SIGNAL!
3 of your staffers, including your Chief of Staff have been indicted for a bid rigging scandal and now even more information is coming out that your administration has hid vital information from investigators. Elevate strategies at the center of the bid rigging scandal was Adrian Garcia’s deputy campaign manager. This is a Democrat kickback scandal.
On behalf of Harris County residents……I am calling on you to resign effective immediately so we can get transparency, accountability and honesty back in our county.
HARRIS COUNTY DESERVES BETTER
Texas Ranger Daron Parker 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.”
The “concealed evidence” included the following:
- Harris County Judge’s office employees used their personal phones to communicate about the Targeted Community Vaccine Outreach project with the owner of Elevate Strategies; and,
- Draft documents showing Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo personally edited the scope of the Targeted Vaccine Outreach project and mentioned the owner of Elevate Strategies LLC in her editing one day before the scope of work was shared with the owner of Elevate Strategies LLC and more than two weeks before the project was publically announced; and
- WhatsApp and SMS messages showing Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and her staff believed that the majority of the Harris County Commissioners Court were going to vote against funding the Targeted Community Vaccine Outreach project and used the County Judge’s Emergency Authorization powers to bypass the voting process and award $10,973,00 to Elevate; and
- WhatsApp messages had been deleted after the initiation of the Grand Jury investigation.
“Given the four corners of the affidavit and the warrant, it would appear to be a reasonable deduction that Judge Hidalgo’s DNA is now in play in this investigation,” Wice said.
The COVID-19 Outreach Contract
According to search warrants, investigators were looking for any communications or files that may show they disclosed non-public information to Felicity Pereyra, who founded Elevate Strategies.
The county awarded Elevate Strategies the multi-million dollar contract. However, it was revoked last fall after questions surfaced about how it was awarded.
In previous statements, Hidalgo has stated she is standing by her staffers.
“Since the State of Texas disbanded the Public Integrity Unit, which was housed at Travis County District Attorney’s Office, the responsibility for such work has landed exclusively with district attorneys across the state,” said Dane Schiller, spokesman for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. “Prosecutors presented the evidence to a Harris County grand jury, which determined there was sufficient evidence for criminal charges. We will follow the evidence wherever it leads and apply the law equally to all; our work continues,” a statement released Monday from the judge’s office read.
Hidalgo released another statement.
“News reports have already shown that recent accusations suffer from a serious lack of understanding of the facts. My team will remain on my staff and continue to make meaningful positive changes on behalf of the people of Harris County. It’s no coincidence that these unfair allegations are being leveled against them in the middle of an election year,” the statement read.
