HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is not mincing words as she goes after Harris County District Attorney and fellow Democrat Kim Ogg.
The fiery exchange is stemming from an ongoing investigation from the district attorney into Hidalgo’s office.
The investigation so far has led to three of Hidalgo's employees being indicted after an investigation into an $11 million COVID vaccine outreach contract.
Judge Hidalgo says Ogg is choreographing a political exercise to go after her during her re-election bid.
“It’s okay to have a personal problem with somebody, I don’t know if that’s the case, but it’s not okay to pursue a political vendetta, a political exercise under the guise of a criminal investigation,” Hidalgo said.
Hidalgo has accused Ogg of trying to interfere in her re-election campaign during a press conference this week.
“It’s no coincidence this is happening in the middle of my re-election campaign, that in and of itself should make it very clear that it’s politically motivated, that it’s meant to destruct, destroy to harm my campaign, to harm distract me,” Hildalgo added.
Hildago, who surprised many by being elected four years ago during a Democratic sweep of Harris County offices, said on Twitter Wednesday she expects to be indicted as part of the investigations into the COVID contracts.
“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,” she wrote.
District Attorney Kim Ogg’s office is pushing back saying in a statement:
“No one should diminish, degrade or dismiss the hard work of grand jurors who spent five months on this investigation and determined that the three defendants should be indicted for two felonies a piece."
KHOU 11 political expert Bob Stein says the infighting between the two high-ranking Democratic officials could spell bad news in this election year.
“The ultimate outcome can only be bad news for the Democratic party in Harris County. Since Kim Ogg’s not on the ballot she can’t be defeated. Lina Hidalgo is on the ballot and she can be defeated,” Stein said.
The Harris County Democratic Chair, Odus Evbagharu, is weighing in, sticking with the Harris County judge.
“We stand with Judge Hidalgo and fully support her and believe she acted with integrity and full transparency, and we trust that the legal process will reach the right result,” he said in a statement.