A New Orleans grand jury on Thursday indicted Republican Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on charges including intimidation and malfeasance, accusing the state’s top law enforcement officer of threatening local officials during a high-profile political dispute over the Orleans Parish criminal court clerk’s office.
The 16-count indictment accuses Louisiana’s first female attorney general of threatening local officials with removal from office if they proceeded with actions she believed violated state law.
Assistant District Attorney Laurie White, who is prosecuting the case, said Thursday she expects it to be “very simple” and “very open and shut.”
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Murrill responded in a post on X, calling the indictment “retaliatory, meritless, and unconstitutional” and saying she would immediately appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court.
“I will not back down,” Murrill wrote. “I will continue enforcing the law, fighting corruption, and doing the job the people of Louisiana elected me to do.”
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry also defended Murrill, saying he would pardon her “as fast as the law allows.”
Landry said Murrill “will not have to worry about having her reputation tarnished by this kangaroo grand jury or the Orleans Kangaroo court.”
“The criminal justice system is a circus at its finest in Orleans and we will not have any of that!” he added.
In a follow-up post, Landry called for an investigation into the grand jury proceedings.
“Based on the information contained in the motion by @AGLizMurrill, I am ordering the State Police to immediately begin investigating the alleged improprieties of this grand jury and those who ran it!”
The indictment stems from a months-long dispute between state leaders and New Orleans officials over the Orleans Parish criminal court clerk’s office.
At Landry’s urging, Louisiana lawmakers approved a Republican-backed overhaul that eliminated the elected Orleans Parish criminal court clerk position after Calvin Duncan, a man who spent nearly three decades in prison before his conviction was overturned, won the office. The law transferred the position’s duties to the parish’s civil court clerk, preventing Duncan from taking office.
After New Orleans officials sought to install Duncan or create a path for him to assume the office, Murrill warned they could face removal under Louisiana’s “usurper” laws, which prohibit support for an unauthorized officeholder. Prosecutors allege those warnings formed the basis of the criminal charges against her.
“Were very interested in elected officials in New Orleans not being intimidated or threatened by letter or any other way,” White told reporters after the indictment was unsealed.
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