Attorney General Ken Paxton has dropped charges against two former staffers of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. The two were charged with misuse of official information and tampering with government records.
Hidalgo and other democrats have long argued that the charges were political in nature, an attempt by then-Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg to retaliate against Hidalgo.
After losing her reelection bid in the Democrat Primary last March, Ogg announced her office would be turning the cases over to the Office of the Attorney General for prosecution. Ogg said she was concerned that Sean Teare, who beat her in the Democrat Primary and went on to win the General Election, would drop prosecution of the cases if he won. Teare maintained that he would recuse the Harris County District Attorney’s Office from the cases if he was elected, and he did so within his first week in office.
The dismissals filed by OAG prosecutors, which have not yet been signed by a judge, cite the “interest of justice.” Only Wallis Nader and Aaron Dunn have, so far, had their cases dismissed. Charges against former Chief of Staff Alex Triantaphyllis are still pending.
The charges stem from an $11 million COVID-19 outreach contract that was awarded to a 1-person firm, Elevate Strategies, despite it not being the most qualified or the lowest bidder. Ogg alleged that the staffers used their positions to help steer the contract to Elevate and its owner, a democrat operative.
In response to the announcement Harris County Judge Linda Hidalgo posted on X:
This result speaks for itself. Their friends and colleagues know that Aaron and Wallis are people of integrity. I’m glad everyone else can see that now too.
As a reminder, the new Harris County District Attorney rightfully had recused himself from the cases.
While the official documents have not yet been made public, the Harris County District Clerk’s website lists the charges as dismissed.
The Office of the Attorney General did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
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