HERE'S SOME BACKGROUND FOR YOU:
The Teflon Litigator
As Minor recounts it, and other lawyers with whom I spoke confirm, the idea of rushing in to support the judges who came under fire from the Chamber of Commerce started with Richard Scruggs, probably the best known and wealthiest member of the Mississippi trial lawyers bar. Scruggs, like Minor, made loans to Mississippi judges and came under investigation in the original study launched by the FBI. However, there was a critical difference. Scruggs tends to support the Republicans, not the Democrats. In 2000, for instance, he gave $250,000 to the Bush-Cheney campaign and to the G.O.P.,44. Federal Election Commission Report, Sept. 15, 2000 (in addition to this donation, Scruggs has made several others, and his wife has given over $500,000 to various Republican causes). and only $20,000 to Democratic candidates.55. Brian Perry, “Bad Judges,” Madison County Journal, Nov. 21, 2002. And more significantly, Scruggs was the brother-in-law of Mississippi Senator Trent Lott, who at the time was the Republican leader in the U.S. Senate.
If the conduct that Minor engaged in was unlawful, then Scruggs should also have been charged. Indeed, an outsider looking over the file would come pretty quickly to expect to see Scruggs as the lead defendant in the case. But that’s not the way U.S. Attorney Lampton and Public Integrity section head Noel Hillman saw things, and several people who have asked to remain anonymous have told me that that Lott was aggressive in acting to protect Scruggs. Indeed, FBI Agent Matthew Campbell out of the Gulfport field office is reported to have expressed disbelief that the case was pursued against the Democratic donors but dropped as against the Republican-connected Scruggs. The Biloxi Sun Herald reported6 6. “Web of Connections,” Sun Herald, Apr. 23, 2004.:
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Ultimately, two trials occurred. The first resulted in a deadlocked jury. When time came for the second trial, Minor found that the judge had decided to change the rules. In the first trial, Minor had offered a great deal of exculpatory evidence. He showed that he had an established practice of making small loans and guaranteeing loans to his friends and colleagues in the legal community who couldn’t get them. This included a series of loans and loan guarantees he made over a long period of time to Black lawyers who had a notoriously difficult time securing credit from Mississippi racially conscious banks. The evidence showed that the guarantees that Minor made to the three judges here, to allow them to fund their reelection campaigns, were nothing out of character for him. It directly offset claims that his intent was corrupt. But as the second trial got under way, the presiding judge announced he had changed his mind about this evidence, and he was going to exclude it. This was a clear and conscious changing of the goal-posts in mid-game designed to help the prosecution get a conviction. And the second go-round in fact produced just that result.
It appears to me that what got Paul Minor in trouble is that he facilitated campaign finance for Diaz and for two lower court judges. In the mind of the Justice Department prosecutors, he did not give money because he supported the candidates, nor because they were his friends, nor because he agreed with their judicial philosophy. In the Justice Department’s view his donations were made in order to influence cases he had pending before the court.
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http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/10/hbc-90001343
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