Sure Looks Like It Was Trent's Brother-in-Law

by emptywheel

Any speculation on whether Trent knew this was coming down when he resigned the other day?

Prominent Mississippi trial attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, the brother-in-law of outgoing GOP Sen. Trent Lott, was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on charges that he and four other men tried to bribe a Mississippi state court judge.

According to the 13-page indictment, Scruggs and three other attorneys -- including Lott's nephew Zach -- attempted to bribe Mississippi Third Circuit Court Judge Henry L. Lackey with at least $40,000 in cash.

Lackey was assigned to hear a lawsuit in which Scruggs' firm was named as a defendant in a dispute involving $26.5 million in attorneys' fees stemming from a court settlement with State Farm Insurance over Hurricane Katrina claims.

The indictment alleges that the bribe was intended to resolve the case in Scruggs' and his firm's favor.

Now, as bmaz pointed out on yesterday's thread on Scruggs, Scruggs was due to hold a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton--so it's not like Scruggs espouses the same politics as his brother-in-law, and it adds this to a long list of cases in which Trial Lawyers who support Democrats get into legal trouble. Also note, this is not the Paul Minor case, as I suggested it might be yesterday. This has to do with Scruggs' efforts to help a lot of Katrina victims get their money from State Farm.

I have no idea if there's merit to the charges--with this DOJ, who knows?

Comments

[nrglaw]

Every target of a Grand Jury is advised of that fact before indictment and before any attempt to get the target to testify. So, unless Dickey and Trent and Mrs. Dickey (Trent's sister, that is) are not on speaking terms, it seems less than likely that he was in the dark.

But so what? Dickey Scruggs doesn't need any help from Trent Lott to get indicted. He's sleazy enough all by his lonesome.

[Frank Probst]

Hmmm. I'm still skeptical. This indictment really doesn't touch Lott directly (yet). It could be immediately spun as "my wife's Democrat brother". So unless Lott was somehow directly involved (and I don't think he's that stupid), I can't see him resigning over this.

[tekel]

Frank: Why wouldn't Trent be directly involved? If there's a trough, I would expect all the pigs to have their heads in it. Follow the money trail- where did the money for the "loans" come from?

I'm thinking: Katrina Relief fund -> anonymous shell company -> Dickie's law firm -> bribes to judges.

After all, it's irresponsible not to speculate.

[priscianus jr]

I don't have any special information, bu I tend to think Tekel's on the right track. If not, this thing with his brother-in-law would be a bit embarrassing for Trent, but certainly no reason to say bye bye. If there really is no connection, then all I can say is, hat a co inky-dink.

[priscianus jr]

Sorry for typos. bu --> but, hat --> what

[P J Evans]

I wonder who the insurance companies bought, or were trying to buy. (At this point, I'm not sure there's any honest politicians in either MS or LA. I hope I'm wrong, though.)

[emptywheel]

PJ

Did you mean to include AL in there, too?

Because I've been wondering that same thing about AL.

[Silas]

How in the world can anyone spin taped conversations bribing a judge by a prominent trial lawyer into it being done by an insurance company? That is a REAL stretch. Here is the Lott connection: what if Trent Lott found out about the investigation before the targets (the Scruggs crew,) were officially notified and he "tipped off" his brother in law to give him time to hide incriminating evidence? If the FBI knew Trent had done this, there would be good reason to resign now (before being censured and kicked-out of congress.) Then sent to federal prison.

[orionATL]

southern politics -

it's so much fun -

to watch,

to talk about -

unless you happen to be one of the turkey's the're shooting at.

Louisiana is especially benighted,

sort of the heartland of that special american melange of

personal meanness

and business-bought corruption -

the heart and sole of

the "modern" republican party.

but ew's right;

never leave out alabama.

phoenix city was the model for abramoff and rove.

[Mad Dogs]

orionATL,

I thought that AL was a backwards LA.

[tekel]

Silas: I read PJ's comment to be, "If Ricky was buying these judges that we know about, who was the other side buying to keep up, that we don't know about?" Not necessarily that everybody was giving bribes to the same people.

[Jodi]

I find this a common thread.

If someone is indicted for let's say bribing a judge, but this person gives money to the Democrats, it is a political witchhunt.

If they gave money to the Republicans, it is "justice served."

Get real! No one is supposed to bribe judges, and anyone who does it should be prosecuted.

[P J Evans]

True. I should have included AL.

Tekel, you read that one right.

[BeBe]

Phenix City is the playbook for Rove and Abramoff. Anyone who reads about that will understand that Rove is not a genius but a common thug who has to copy from the confederate mafia. He's just a copycat. Did you know Leura Canary the USA of Montgomery is the niece of Si Garret?

[radiofreewill]

Retiring GOP Senators:

Wayne Allard
Larry Craig
Pete Domenici
Chuck Hagel
Trent Lott
John Warner

Cloudy Futures:

Ted Stevens
David Vitter

[tekel]

Craig can't retire! His stancefuture is wide open!

[Kax]

ooooooops...anyone smell fish????

[Jodi]

test

[Jodi]

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[Jodi]

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