Louisiana Voice

Remember OUR STORY back in May, the one about Attorney General Liz Murrill’s heavy-handed letter to New Orleans officials in which she threatened them with jail time for their sin of disagreeing with her and her boss, Squeaky Toy Jeff Landry?

In case you don’t recall that, here is A REMINDER from the attorney general’s very own web page.

Taking his cue from Diaper Don, Landry had his own puppet attorney general fire off a letter—and even posting it for all to see—in which Mayor Helena Moreno, the entire city council and District Attorney Jason Williams WERE THREATENED / under something called the state’s “usurper statutes” for their continued support of Calvin Duncan who had won an election for criminal clerk of court for Orleans Parish.

While the Lord of Mar-a-Lardo seems to be able to get away with seemingly illegal directives of what he obviously thinks is his personal Department of Justice to go after perceived enemies, Landry and Murrill may have overstepped their authority to arrest and/or remove from office those officials who might take issue with their political opinions.

Justice, it seems, can work both ways, meaning Murrill her own self is not immune from investigation.

Accordingly, an Orleans Parish criminal grand jury is conducting its own investigation of the attorney general to determine if she may have committed a crime in her messages to the seven officials. The grand jury itself initiated the investigation.

Williams, for obvious reasons, recused himself. Former criminal court judge Laurie White was named to lead the probe and that a special prosecutor was appointed in an unusual move.

Witnesses, including some members of the city council, have already begun testifying.

While Murrill claimed the mayor and council “usurped” Napoleon’s authority by citing a statute that makes it a misdemeanor to assume office without authority or to interfere with a public official, Moreno responded by alluding to a different law against intimidation and retaliation in an effort to attempt to influence decisions or to change a position. (By way of explanation for those who might not know, Louisiana’s laws are based on the Napoleonic Code whereas the remaining 49 states operate under English Common Law.)

It’s an interesting pissing contest, to say the very least, and it puts on public display Landry’s disdain for all things New Orleans, a decidedly blue pocket in Louisiana’s sea of red.

In all likelihood, the grand jury’s investigation will not produce any indictments but at the very least, the probe should send a message to Baton Rouge that some citizens still refuse to be bullied and that all officials, state or local, are subject to the same set of laws that protect citizens’ rights despite the temporary dominance of Repugnantcans who seem to forget that the political pendulum does indeed swing both ways.