{"id":4964,"date":"2026-07-02T22:41:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T22:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/2026\/07\/02\/louisiana-republican-attorney-general-indicted-on-criminal-charges\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T22:41:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T22:41:45","slug":"louisiana-republican-attorney-general-indicted-on-criminal-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/?p=4964","title":{"rendered":"Louisiana: Republican attorney general indicted on criminal charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-gu-name=\"media\" class=\"dcr-14sl0e4\">\n<div class=\"dcr-17l77cs\">\n<figure id=\"7b515dbf-d23c-43c6-8a43-3141337b7d23\" class=\"dcr-191xnya\">\n<div id=\"img-1\" class=\"dcr-1t7hdmw\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"a woman speaking \" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/75ba7c9eaad2e1042c8fb9af32a472a2dfc780cb\/0_0_8169_5446\/master\/8169.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" width=\"465\" height=\"310\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"dcr-up96pv\"><span class=\"dcr-kogzpx\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-18mnkpm\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1294qmb\"><label for=\"the-checkbox\" class=\"dcr-4sl2vt\"><\/label> <\/p>\n<div id=\"the-caption\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1mfxiaj\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">Liz Murrill in Baton Rouge in May.<\/span> Photograph: Matthew Hinton\/AP<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><a href=\"#img-1\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-zwabc0\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><button data-element-id=\"7b515dbf-d23c-43c6-8a43-3141337b7d23\" type=\"button\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-1bitgpn\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-1shbixy\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"dcr-qda0hp\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1e9iiy9\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">Liz Murrill in Baton Rouge in May.<\/span> Photograph: Matthew Hinton\/AP<\/figcaption><\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"headline\" class=\"dcr-ql9l8l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-6mja0y\">\n<h1 class=\"dcr-l0wuod\">Louisiana: Republican attorney general indicted on criminal charges<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"standfirst\" class=\"dcr-1xpojbf\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1gm5ptv\">\n<p>Liz Murrill accused of trying to intimidate officials who opposed GOP-enacted law to overhaul local courts<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"body\" class=\"dcr-x1al2c\">\n<div class=\"dcr-11gq2tx\">\n<div id=\"maincontent\" class=\"dcr-1w2vkyc\">\n<div class=\"article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-ogvvui\">\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Louisiana\u2019s Republican attorney general was indicted on 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Liz Murrill, the attorney general, told eight New Orleans officials, including Helena Moreno, the mayor, and Jason Williams, the district attorney, that they could face removal from their jobs because of their opposition to the law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">It eliminated the position of Orleans parish criminal court clerk after Calvin Duncan, a man who spent decades in prison for a wrongful conviction, was elected to the post with 68% of the vote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Legislators approved the law at the urging of the Republican governor, Jeff Landry, just days before Duncan was to take office in May. Duncan\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">On Thursday, Landry called the New Orleans criminal justice system \u201ca circus at its finest\u201d and promised to pardon Murrill on the 16 charges against her \u201cas fast as the law allows\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The Republican Attorneys General Association called the indictment \u201cas outrageous as it is dangerous\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The GOP group said in making her statements, Murrill was simply \u201cissuing a legal opinion and warning public officials about the law\u201d as part of her official duties. Murrill\u2019s critics saw it as an attempt to intimidate them into accepting the law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" class=\"dcr-swayiu\"><span class=\"dcr-1xhbmzr\">Explore more on these topics<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-2c03t5\">\n<ul class=\"dcr-p7nd18\">\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/louisiana\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Louisiana<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/republicans\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Republicans<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-politics\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">US politics<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/tone\/news\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">news<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-313bdz\"><a href=\"mailto:?subject=Louisiana:%20Republican%20attorney%20general%20indicted%20on%20criminal%20charges&amp;body=https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jul\/02\/louisiana-republican-attorney-general-liz-murrill?CMP=share_btn_url\" class=\"dcr-ncybeu\">Share<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-19bkree\"><a data-link-name=\"meta-syndication-article\" href=\"https:\/\/syndication.theguardian.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2026%2Fjul%2F02%2Flouisiana-republican-attorney-general-liz-murrill&amp;type=article&amp;internalpagecode=us-news\/2026\/jul\/02\/louisiana-republican-attorney-general-liz-murrill\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"Reuse this content\" class=\"dcr-1c41onw\">Reuse this content<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"right-column\" class=\"dcr-axwinp\"><span class=\"dcr-1ryr20k\"><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liz Murrill in Baton Rouge in May. Photograph: Matthew Hinton\/AP View image in fullscreen Liz Murrill in Baton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}