BY SAFIYAH RIDDLE and JOHN HANNA
Louisiana’s Republican attorney general was indicted Thursday on criminal charges by a grand jury in New Orleans, accused of trying to intimidate local officials who fought a law enacted by GOP legislators to overhaul the local courts.
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Attorney General Liz Murrill told eight New Orleans officials, including Mayor Helena Moreno and District Attorney Jason Williams, that they could face removal from their jobs for opposing the law. It eliminated the position of Orleans Parish criminal court clerk after a man who spent decades in prison for a wrongful conviction was elected to the post with 68% of the vote.
Legislators approved the law at Republican Governor Jeff Landry’s urging just days before Calvin Duncan was to take office in May. Duncan’s supporters saw it as a move by a majority white conservative Legislature to thwart the will of voters in a predominantly Black Democratic hub in a red state.
Landry slammed the indictment in a social media post on Thursday, promising to pardon Murrill “as fast as the law allows.”
“The criminal justice system is a circus at its finest in Orleans and we will not have any of that!” he wrote on X, where he called the system a “Kangaroo court.”
The Republican Attorneys General Association called the indictment “as outrageous as it is dangerous.”
The GOP group said in making her statements that Murrill was simply “issuing a legal opinion and warning public officials about the law” as part of her official duties. Murrill’s critics saw it as an attempt to intimidate them into accepting the law.
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Local officials had a swearing in ceremony for Duncan on the steps of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court two weeks before he was to take office — while lawmakers still were considering the measure to eliminate his job.
Moreno, a Democrat, said in a statement that the indictment is “a matter for the courts” and did not directly address the allegations against Murrill.
“My focus, as always, remains on fulfilling the responsibilities the people of New Orleans elected me to carry out,” Moreno said.
Assistant Attorney General Laurie White, who is prosecuting the case, addressed reporters after the indictment.
“We’re very interested in elected officials in New Orleans not being intimidated or threatened by letter or any other way,” White said.
She said she expected the case will be “very simple” and “very open and shut.”
In response to Landry’s promise to pardon Murrill, she said, “Let’s get her convicted, and then he can pardon her.”
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Associated Press reporter Jack Brook contributed from New Orleans.