Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton acknowledged last week that embattled Judge KP George is making every possible attempt to get out of being prosecuted for money laundering and involvement in a social media hoax, but said George’s allegations of prosecutorial misconduct are meritless.
George, who has served as Fort Bend County judge since 2019, is scheduled for a jury trial on a misdemeanor charge of identity misrepresentation — involving allegations that he worked with a staff member to fake racist attacks against his own campaign on social media — on January 6, with a pre-trial conference hearing set for December 16.
Middleton is also planning to prosecute George on felony money laundering charges in February. A pretrial hearing on that case, which alleges that George used campaign funds to pay his property taxes and put a down payment on a house, is scheduled for December 15 in the 458th District Court.
George, a new Republican, and Middleton, a Democrat, are both up for re-election in 2026. George has maintained that Middleton is pursuing a political vendetta against him and committed prosecutorial misconduct by withholding evidence, including recorded conversations and text messages about the cases against George.
Middleton’s response to George’s accusations states that several text messages sent to the media by George’s attorneys were cherry-picked from hundreds of thousands of communications and are unrelated to Middleton’s prosecutorial or governmental duties and responsibilities.
George’s attorney Jared Woodfill published some of the text messages in a first round of legal filings on October 31 and added more fuel to the fire in another set of documents filed last week. Woodfill is asking that the cases against George be dismissed, or at the very least that Middleton and his office be disqualified from involvement in the case.
The attorney is also requesting the immediate cessation of encrypted, auto-deleting communication apps by the DA’s office and production of remaining electronic communications that haven’t yet been disclosed.
Woodfill told the Houston Press that he obtained secret audio recordings and text messages from George’s former chief of staff Taral Patel, who was charged in the social media hoax and sentenced to probation. Those transcripts and text messages were not included in the discovery provided by the DA’s office, Woodfill said, alleging that Middleton withheld such evidence because he knew about the social media hoax while it was going on.
“What is extremely troubling is that the last few minutes of a three-hour proffer interview with Patel by the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office has been wiped clean,” George’s legal filing states. “This is highly suspicious, as the discussion just prior to erasure centered around which Fort Bend County public figures — and of course Middleton is one of those public figures — knew about Patel’s activities.”
In Middleton’s response, he points out that a 130-second portion of the videotaped interview was indeed corrupted but his office provided a backup video that captured the entire meeting with Patel. Woodfill claims the backup video is of poor quality and even a transcriber wasn’t able to make out what was said.
The DA’s office responded to George’s original legal documents by pointing out “the inaccuracies and lack of evidence to support such wild accusations.”
Wesley Wittig, second assistant DA and a spokesman for the office, said George continues to make “the same tired argument,” but Middleton would file an official response to the latest accusations.
“This is yet another desperate attempt, in a long line of attempts, to smear anyone (especially the Fort Bend County District Attorney) through allegations that are baseless and inaccurate,” Wittig said in an email to the Press. “There is no retaliation, no misconduct, and no evidence was destroyed or withheld.”
“We look forward to challenging these assertions in the courtroom and focusing our energy on the upcoming trials of KP George for the criminal conduct he is charged with,” Wittig added.
A 15-page legal filing from the DA’s office issued in early November states that “George has shown no basis for disqualification of the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office on the merits of his motion. He does not cite a statutory reason for disqualification, nor does he allege a non-statutory circumstance the Court of Criminal Appeals has recognized as due process violation.”
“Instead, he seeks to disqualify the elected District Attorney Brian Middleton and his entire office on the basis that at some point, prior to the filing of this case, DA Middleton used messaging application with disappearing-messages feature; that certain messages appear to demonstrate personal animus against him; and that if DA Middleton failed to preserve the messages it could constitute other law violations. This theory does not establish conflict of interest, much less one that meets the due process violation standard,” the motion continues.
The text messages and phone call transcripts produced by George’s legal team aren’t particularly flattering to Middleton. They’re littered with profanity and suggestions that the DA’s office wants to “destroy” political opponents. However, those close to the matter have pointed out that the documents came from Patel, who was sentenced for identity misrepresentation, and brought forth by the legal team of George, who is accused of faking social media accounts and posts.
Woodfill told the Press that he had not deposed Patel because that’s not a standard practice in a criminal case, but he did ask for an evidentiary hearing, at which time a judge would likely ask the question of whether the text messages and recorded conversations were AI-generated or otherwise “faked.”
Middleton’s office has opposed an evidentiary hearing, claiming it’s not needed since the accusations are without merit.
Woodfill said last week the text messages obtained from Patel’s phone outline numerous conversations with Middleton that prove the DA is willing to take down those who oppose him.
“It appears based on that evidence that we put in our motion that if you cross [Middleton] or make him mad, he will fight you and go after you and use our taxpayer dollars to target you,” Woodfill said. “The recordings show that he was clearly complicit in the fake Facebook campaign. Why wouldn’t he disqualify himself and let another judge hear it? He needs to resign.”
The felony case against George, 61, carries a potential sentence of two to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000. Woodfill maintains that George gave himself a campaign loan, a common practice when running for office, and paid it back but the paperwork was not filed properly. As for the social media hoax, George’s lawyers say there’s no evidence that the judge was involved.
If anyone wants to wade through the back and forth paperwork that’s been filed in this case, here it is for your reading pleasure:
The post Fort Bend DA Says KP George’s Legal Filings Are “Desperate” appeared first on Houston Press.
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