(Louisiana Illuminator) — Political rancor between Louisiana’s Republican leaders and the Democratic power structure in New Orleans reached unprecedented heights Thursday with the criminal indictment of Attorney General Liz Murrill.
A grand jury handed up a 16-count indictment against Murrill, charging her with eight counts each of intimidation and malfeasance in office. Special prosecutor Laurie White confirmed the charges to reporters outside Orleans Criminal District Courthouse.
The allegations involve letters the attorney general sent to Mayor Helena Moreno, District Attorney Jason Williams and five of the seven New Orleans City Council members in May after they took official action to install an interim clerk of criminal court.
“After taking on violent crime and entrenched corruption in New Orleans, it’s no surprise the status quo is looking for ways to stop me,” Murrill said in a statement on social media Thursday evening.
Read Murrill’s full statement below
In the letter to New Orleans officials, Murrill said Gov. Jeff Landry had the authority to remove the officials from their elected seats because they had circumvented a new state law that combined the two court clerks’ offices in New Orleans. She also indicated she would imprison the interim clerk, retired Judge Calvin Johnson, if he assumed the clerk’s duties.
The state law at issue put Civil Clerk Chelsea Richard Napoleon in charge of the combined agencies and prevented Calvin Duncan, the newly elected criminal court clerk, from taking office.
A separate law, approved this spring with Landry’s backing, eliminated three judgeships in Orleans Criminal District Court. Republican state leaders have argued that New Orleans’ dual court system, unique among Louisiana’s 42 judicial districts, is overdue for down-sizing.
The laws took effect just days after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the redistricting case Callais vs. Louisiana. It put in motion a GOP plan to eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black congressional districts, including an emergency order from Landry to postpone the U.S. House party primaries that were to take place May 16 using the existing districts.
New Orleans’ leaders balked at what they labeled as an unabashed political attack on the state’s Black, Democratic stronghold, prompting them to name an interim clerk and call a special election for the fall to fill what they saw as a new consolidated clerk’s post.
Moreno issued a statement in response to Murrill being charged, saying it “is a matter for the courts.”
“We’re very interested in elected officials in New Orleans not being intimidated by a letter or threatened in any way,” White told reporters.
Late Thursday, Murrill said she had requested a stay in her criminal proceedings from the Louisiana Supreme Court, which granted the order Friday morning. The attorney general said she would next take steps to have the charges against her dismissed.
“I hope this political witch hunt is not a harbinger of things to come, but I fear that it is,” Murrill said in a statement Friday morning. “Neither the grand jury investigation law nor the public intimidation law was intended to be used as a political weapon by a rogue, biased, vindictive special prosecutor, judge, and grand jury. I hope the legislature in the future will ensure this cannot happen again.”
Murrill included the first two pages of her filing with the court in her post. The attorney general said her office is representing White through appointed counsel in a sexual harassment case against her in Orleans Civil District Court, creating a conflict of interest for White in the investigation of Murrill.
White also called the attorney general’s office Wednesday and shared confidential information about the grand jury while also discussing her representation, according to the stay request. “That too was illegal,” the motion reads.
Associate Justice Jefferson Hughes wrote in his reasons for the stay being granted that Judge Roche “violated express provisions of state law requiring that grand jury returns occur in the public eye, ‘in open court.'” He added reporters were handcuffed and removed from these otherwise public proceedings.
White said Thursday the reporters were removed to protect the anonymity of the grand jurors, who were still in Roche’s courtroom.
Roche issued a warrant for Murrill’s arrest. Records from the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office indicate her bond has been set at $400,000, though the attorney general’s office has yet to say whether she has or will turn herself in to authorities. Orleans Parish online court records indicate Murrill’s arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday. Her case has been assigned to Judge Angel Harris, who has served on the court since 2020.
Landry posted on social media that “Murrill will not have to worry about having her reputation tarnished by this kangaroo grand jury or the Orleans kangaroo court as I will pardon her as fast as the law allows.”
The governor does not have the authority to issue a pardon without a recommendation from the state pardon and parole board, which can only act following a conviction.
Landry later said he was ordering State Police to investigate “the alleged improprieties of this grand jury and those who ran it!”
Murrill’s attorney, Laura Rodrigue Cannizzaro, also met with reports outside the courthouse and said the indictment is unlikely to hold up in light of information “leaked” to journalists in recent days. Several local news outlets had this week reported that a grand jury would soon call for charges against Murrill, citing only sources close to the investigation.
The indictment of Murrill marks an unraveling of untenable relationship with New Orleans leaders that started soon after she and Landry were elected in fall 2023. Before they took office, the Republican state leaders asserted their authority over New Orleans by announcing plans to devote state resources to the local criminal justice system. A new, year-round Louisiana State Police troop was established in the city, and Murrill’s office was put in charge of all prosecutions resulting from the troopers’ crime-fighting efforts.
Williams, the district attorney, and New Orleans leaders publicly embraced the additional resources at the time. Violent crime in the city subsided over the ensuing months, with partial credit given to the increased police presence and support from the Louisiana National Guard, which was deployed following the Jan. 1, 2025, terror attack on Bourbon Street. Crime analysts also pointed to broader national trends showing fewer incidents of violent and property crime.
“After taking on violent crime and entrenched corruption in New Orleans, it’s no surprise the status quo is looking for ways to stop me.
“This unprecedented action and the corrupt indictments spawned from it are retaliatory, meritless, and unconstitutional. After confidential information was illegally leaked to members of the press by the grand jury or the improperly appointed, unqualified special prosecutor, there are now indications that the court handcuffed and locked out members of the media — and threatened them with contempt — in clear violation of Louisiana law. It is beyond ironic that the improperly appointed special prosecutor, who called my office and violated the confidentiality of the grand jury proceedings herself, claims protecting confidentiality justified closing the courtroom. And the grand jury that leaked information like a sinking ship hardly seemed concerned about privacy.
“I will be immediately filing an emergency supervisory writ with the Louisiana Supreme Court. Hopefully this will be sorted out quickly.
“I will not back down. I will continue enforcing the law, fighting corruption, and doing the job the people of Louisiana elected me to do.”
