It was just a matter of time before Harris County Republican Party Chair Cindy Siegel’s good friend, Aubrey Taylor, was indicted (again). Taylor’s new case, injury to an elderly person (a third degree felony), is enhanced with Taylor’s prior robbery conviction; so, he is 2-20 years on this assault of Gerald Womack. Taylor has also been to state jail for theft. I am curious why the DA’s Office chose to present the case directly to a grand jury so quickly after the incident. Taylor could have been arrested by law enforcement and indicted later. I need to ask. I published his criminal history in the past on Facebook. I guess the Harris County Republican Party and Siegel didn’t get the message. Let’s try this again.
Taylor has been identified as “Right Wing Blogger” but he is really more of a grifter for many politicians in both parties. Taylor certainly loves Siegel and writes about her often. Every member of the Harris County Republican Party Executive Committee needs to pay attention ask yourself why Siegel is giving an “exclusive interview” to Taylor.
For years, Taylor has taken money from both Republicans and Democrats to “advertise” in his “publication” called the Houston Business Connections. Over the last few years, Taylor started teaming up with Dr. Steve Hotze. As a refresher, Hotze is currently under indictment (and defending a civil action) in Harris County for acting as a party with disgraced former Houston Police Department Officer Mark Aguirre to assault an innocent man (David Lopez) at gunpoint. In October 2020, Aguirre (and some unidentified accomplices) followed Lopez around town, intentionally struck Lopez’s truck, and held Lopez at gunpoint. Thankfully, a real Houston Police Officer saw the encounter and saved Lopez. The narrative was that Aguirre (and friends) believed that small Hispanic children in rooms throughout Harris County were preparing fake ballots and Lopez was transporting those fake ballots in the back of his truck.
Hotze Deposition:
Q. [Lopez’s Lawyer]. Did he [Aguirre] tell you anything about groups having Hispanic children filling out ballots so that they couldn’t be traced?
A. [Steve Hotze] He did mention that to me. And he mentioned that he thought there were multiple locations across the county doing that.
Q. [Lopez’s Lawyer] Well, being that one of your purposes and one of the Center’s purposes was to stop voter fraud, that would be something of great interest to you, would it not?
A. [Hotze] Well, from what he told me, it appeared that he was on a hot trail.
Q. [Lopez’s Lawyer] And what other information did he give you?
A. [Hotze] None other than that.
Q. [Lopez’s Lawyer] All right. So he went — I mean, he told you that Hispanic children in several locations are filling out ballots to take to NRG?
A. [Hotze] That’s what he felt like, there were several locations where illegal ballots were being filled out.
Q. [Lopez’s Lawyer] Did you try to follow up on that, or get any more information on it?
A. [Hotze] Well, he was — he’s the investigator. He’s the former police officer. He knows what needs to be done. I left it in his hands. Whatever — whatever channels you need to go through to report this, do it.
. . .
A. [Hotze] If you’d be — why don’t you go read Aubrey Taylor’s — why don’t [you] read Aubrey Taylor and — you read Aubrey Taylor’s material? If you read his material, he’s got it all documented. That is all — it’s all laid out.
. . .
Q. [Lopez’s Lawyer] All right. Let me tell you if you have information and you don’t relay it to me —
From Dr. Hotze’s January 4, 2022 DepositionA. [Hotze] Sure. Go to — I’ll send you all Aubrey Taylor’s, all his communications, all the documentation you want.
To be clear, no actual competent evidence has ever connected Lopez to any election fraud operation. This same false narrative has infected the Harris County Republican Party. And last summer, we learned about the Texas Election Network. These false narrative schemes harm our Republican cause.
Q. [Lopez’s Lawyer] Okay. And . . . Oh, the private investigator or investigators that were utilized that you talked about, who paid for them?
A. [Colleen Vera] Sometimes they just donate — or Chuck donated his time. And then when we actually had to start — we — we agreed on a payment where he would actually go out and talk to the voters because then that takes his actual personal time, then that was paid by the Harris County Republican Party.
From Colleen Vera’s February 24, 2022 Deposition
Last summer, we learned about the Texas Election Network (now in Tax Forfeiture status) led by Melissa Conway. This scheme made it appear that the Republicans were trying to keep minorities from voting. Not a good look.
So, why is Aubrey Taylor pushing Cindy Siegel and why is Siegel even speaking with Taylor? What funds, if any, has the party used to support Hotze? Taylor? Texas Election Network? What did Siegel do with the hundreds of thousands of dollars that she received from the Republican Party of Texas? Why would the Chairman of the Harris County Republican Party support a career habitual criminal? Why would the Chairman of the Harris County Republican Party want a barely literate blogger to write about the party?
At the beginning of the year, I drafted a resolution to support actual election integrity and disassociate ourselves from these crazy schemes. I filed the resolution ten days before our EC meeting, as required by our rules. Moments before the EC meeting, Taylor sent out a fake news hit piece on me. Siegel adjourned the meeting before even considering the resolution and failed to place the resolution in “Old Business” at the following meeting.
When people started asking Taylor about his criminal history, Taylor responded that he was doing an expose on prisons and was purposely arrested to complete his research. Apparently, Siegel and Hotze fell for it. Why is HCRP run by the Advisory Board rather than grassroots precinct chairs? What is the HCRP Advisory Board doing to get Republicans elected in Houston, Harris County, Texas? What is the HCRP Advisory Board doing to get the 2024 ballot filled?
Q. [Lopez’s Lawyer] Okay. Do you know who Aubrey Taylor is?
A. [Colleen Vera] Yes.
Q. [Lopez’s Lawyer] All right. And do you participate in posting things on his blog or his website?
A. [Colleen Vera] I’m not on his website. I mean, he — he’s on Facebook and I probably have commented on his Facebook stuff before, but . . .
Q. [Lopez’s Lawyer] But have you ever given him content for him to post?
A. [Colleen Vera] Yes.
***
A. [Colleen Vera] He probably got the documents from me. And I haven’t read everything he’s written, so I don’t — I don’t — if you give me a specific one, I can tell you, but I don’t — I don’t —
The question: are grassroots Republicans in Houston, Harris County, Texas going to do anything about this nonsense? I am pulling together all the information on the Damian Jones incident, joint judicial campaign missing funds, election integrity missing funds, and the election contest litigation. These topics and other misdeeds by our party chair are all topics for the very near future.