Will the legal mess in Mississippi reach all the way to DC?

[Jane Austin]

While the whole country follows the primaries or the new season of American Idol, there are big doin's down in Mississippi.

Remember that story around Thanksgiving about Trent Lott's brother-in-law getting indicted for bribing a judge, and how Lott resigned from the Senate the day before the B-i-L's office got searched?

Well, they've started the preliminary court stuff and the lawyers down in Mississippi are pleading out, turning on each other, playing musical chairs with defense lawyers, and generally turning over a bunch of rocks with nasty stuff under them.

The people following all things Mississippi call it Scruggsiana.

The thing started with a dispute among lawyers over fees from asbestos and tobacco litigation then spread to fees from settlements with the insurance companies who wouldn't pay for damage from Katrina. But . . . it doesn't seem like it's going to end there.

Already there are hints that a state circuit court judge may have gotten picked up in the net taking a bribe in another case.

Dickie Scruggs, Trent Lott's brother-in-law, is the big cheese so far, and the feds say they have him on tape via wire-tap incriminating himself. His defense team is trying to make a case for entrapment, but that may not go down so well, aimed as it is at a respected federal judge.

Was Trent involved? Was Fred Thompson somebody's attorney in one of these cases? Did Bill and Hillary luck out when Dickie got indicted a week or two BEFORE hosting a big fund raiser for them? Did one of the indictees in this case have a close connection to Joe Biden?

Does this case go way beyond what we've heard so far? Is there talk of 50-odd more target letters having gone out?

Are there that many crooked lawyers in Mississippi and does this thing go clear to Washington? It's starting to look like it.

For the most up-to-the minute doin's in Scruggsiana, the blog folo is doing some amazing work. Lots of insiders are reading there and the posters and commenters look to have some excellent sources.

For a good summary of the case go here:

http://folo.wordpress.com/2008/01/17/scruggsiana-greatest-hits /

It's a fascinating story and one that may reverberate through the political world for a long time to come.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Crooked lawyers--Mississippi--

Where the hell is John Grisham now that we need him?