The Justice Department is investigating allegations of improper campaign finance practices involving prominent Mississippi trial lawyers, a major source of support for the state's Democratic Party, according to lawyers involved in the case.
One subject of the probe is Paul Minor, a Democratic trial lawyer and son of well-known newspaper columnist Bill Minor, the sources said last week. They said prosecutors also looked into campaign contributions of Richard Scruggs, perhaps the state's best-known trial lawyer, and decided not to bring charges.
The inquiry, conducted by the U.S. attorney's office in Jackson, has been described in news articles in the Biloxi Sun Herald and the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. It has focused in part on campaign loans and other benefits allegedly provided to state Supreme Court Justice Oliver E. Diaz Jr. and two judges who recently retired.
Some Democrats say they suspect the Republican-controlled Justice Department is unfairly targeting trial lawyers who have strong Democratic ties. Trial lawyers, who help plaintiffs sue companies, doctors and others accused of wrongdoing, have become an increasingly important source of Democratic fundraising nationwide, and a frequent target of criticism by corporate and Republican groups.
According to the news accounts and sources familiar with the inquiry, Minor and Scruggs helped Diaz and his then-wife, Jennifer Diaz, obtain bank loans, the proceeds of which helped finance Diaz's 2000 campaign for his court seat. Later, Minor asked fellow plaintiffs' lawyers to help the Diazes pay off the loans, according to news reports. Scruggs, who had co-signed an $80,000 loan to the couple, ended up paying it off himself.
Mississippi state law limits contributions in Supreme Court judicial races to $5,000.
Scruggs and lawyers for Diaz and Minor, reached by phone Friday, declined to comment for this article. Dunn Lampton, the U.S. attorney in Jackson and a Republican appointee, did not respond to a message Friday seeking comment.
Scruggs is the brother-in-law of U.S. Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.). Unlike many politically active trial lawyers, Scruggs has supported both Republicans and Democrats. His wife, Diane Scruggs, gave $250,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2000.
The investigation has the potential to influence this year's reelection bid of Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove (D). Musgrove received a $27,125 contribution from Minor in 2001, less than a month before Musgrove made some key judicial appointments, according to a Clarion-Ledger report. In November, Musgrove expects a challenge from Haley Barbour, a prominent lobbyist and former Republican National Committee chairman.
David Baria, president of the Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association, would not criticize the U.S. attorney's office. But he contended that a host of groups, including some businesses and the Republican Party, are attacking trial lawyers and creating an atmosphere that is "consistent with this prosecution."
Baria said, "There is no question in my mind that there is an effort from the top, from the president in the White House executive office, to attack trial lawyers, to demonize trial lawyers and attack what we do." He said White House political adviser Karl Rove and President Bush "laid the framework for this when in Texas, and it's part of their national agenda."
In 2000, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce invested about $500,000 in efforts to elect favored judges in Mississippi and to defeat others, including Diaz, according to news accounts. When asked whether the chamber's activities might have contributed to an overly hostile political climate toward trial lawyers, Michael Shick, communications director for the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, said: "Any kind of inference or accusation that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had anything to do with instigating this investigation is a desperate diversion tactic that trivializes the serious and solemn nature of this investigation."
