It sounds an awful lot like someone in Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo's office is about to be arrested.
But something tells us Lina won't be the one to get thrown under the bus.
Who do you think will take the fall?
According to sworn affidavits filed with the district clerk’s office, investigators found evidence of possible criminal activity related to Harris County’s $11 million vaccine outreach contract awarded to data analytics firm Elevate Strategies owned by a highly connected Democratic strategist.
Charges listed in the affidavits include tampering with governmental documents and misuse of official information, both felonies under Texas criminal code.
Last week, the Texas Rangers assisted local investigators with the district attorney’s office in serving a series of search warrants signed by a criminal district court. In the affidavits used to justify the warrants, investigators sought computers and smartphones used by three members of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s staff: Aaron Dunn, Wallis Nader, and Alex Triantaphyllis.
The three had been assigned to the selection committee for the vaccine outreach work in the Spring of 2021. But according to the sworn affidavits, Nader and Triantaphyllis exchanged text messages with Hidalgo’s chief of staff Joe Madden about hiring Felicity Pereyra of Elevate Strategies for unspecified county work in January of 2021. Pereyra is a former deputy campaign manager for Commissioner Adrian Garcia (D-Pct. 2) and was the data analytics director for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Triantaphyllis, who ran against Lizzie Fletcher in the 2018 Democratic primary for the 7th Congressional District, has worked on Hidalgo’s staff since March 2019.
Additional text messages indicate that on January 7, 2021, Triantaphyllis sent Nader wording for a program that would involve development and oversight of “vaccine outreach activities,” to be approved by Hidalgo. Then on January 12, he told Nader, “OK, I got her to agree with this scope.”
“So go ahead and sen[d] it to Felicity so we can see what her thoughts are on $$$,” wrote Triantaphyllis.
According to another of the three sworn affidavits Hidalgo texted Triantaphyllis and Madden on January 14 saying she had “taken a stab” at the scope for the project, and added, “What I don’t know is whether these folks will be in charge of the data or whether Felicity can do the disparities data too[.]”