A new lawsuit in Mississippi alleges that former Mississippi Senator Trent Lott was involved in a corrupt scheme to bribe a state court judge to help his brother-in-law, imprisoned tort lawyer Dickie Scruggs.
This renews a question that has been asked here: Did Trent Lott resign under pressure about a criminal investigation?
Updated below with more details about Lott's role
For the last 13 months, the legal profession in Mississippi has been roiled by a prosecution involving the brother-in-law of former Republican Senator Trent Lott, Dickie Scruggs. Scruggs ultimately plead guilty in a judicial bribery case. At the same time, a second case came to light that Scruggs had been involved in judicial bribery involving a judge in Hinds County, the state capital. One allegation was that Scruggs had had his brother-in-law, Trent Lott, dangle a federal judicial nomination against the state judge to get him to rule favorably for Scruggs.
Court-watchers have been waiting for new indictments against Scruggs and other on this second charge, curious who would be defendants. Now civil plaintiffs whose case was fouled up by Scruggs's bribery scheme have jumped the gun on the federal prosecutors, filing a complaint that includes the allegation:
"Circuit Court Judge Bobby B. DeLaughter and a former United States Senator joined the conspiracy and agreed to aid and abet Scruggs, Balducci, Patterson, Peters, David Zachary Scruggs and Langston and others...to thwart and defraud... Wilson."
Readers should remember the timeline here:
Trent Lott resigned on Monday, November 26, 2007.
On November 27th, his brother-in-law's office was searched by the FBI.
On November 28th, Scruggs, his son, and law partner were indicted and arraigned.
A month and a half later, Scruggs's lawyer, Joey Langston (who had represented Scruggs in a prior case), plead guilty and admitted to a judicial bribery scheme involving Scruggs and Senator Lott.
I'm writing about this mess on the blog where I am a cowriter, www.folo.us. There's a discussion of the new complaint here
Update
One of the plaintiff's lawyers is quoted in a story today at the Biloxi SunHerald explaining Lott's role:
"Anybody who acts to further the conspiracy is a co-conspirator," said one of Wilson’s attorneys, Vicki Slater of Jackson. "He called (Circuit Judge) Bobby DeLaughter at Dickie’s request."
DeLaughter has not been charged with a crime but is being accused of ruling in Scruggs’ favor in exchange in 2006 for a potential appointment to the federal bench. Lott has acknowledged that he called DeLaughter about a judgeship, but decided along with Sen. Thad Cochran to appoint someone else.
The day after Lott’s call, Slater said, DeLaughter sent Lott a resume.