By: Jennifer Crockett and Marchaund Jones | fox8live.com | July 2, 2026
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A grand jury indicted Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on 16 felony counts Thursday (July 2), using letters she sent to New Orleans elected officials as evidence in the case.
The special prosecutor said one of eight nearly identical letters was among the evidence grand jurors relied on to indict Murrill. The letters reference Louisiana’s usurper statutes and threaten “personal exposure, fines, imprisonment” if recipients did not drop their clerk dispute. Murrill also wrote that the governor would have the authority to remove the mayor, district attorney, and five council members from office.
Fox 8 political analyst Mike Sherman said the case marks a major turning point.
“This is a stunning escalation of what started as a political dispute with a tit-for-tat, then threats being launched back-and-forth — now an indictment of the sitting attorney general,” Sherman said.
Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche said the 16-count felony case carries serious implications for New Orleans.
“To see an indictment for this activity is really to me a black eye on the city of New Orleans,” Goyeneche said.
Goyeneche also said Murrill may have legal protections.
“The attorney general as a prosecutor has absolute immunity when she’s performing the duties of her office in good faith,” Goyeneche said.
Goyeneche warned that rising tensions between the state and city could jeopardize their partnership to fight crime — a potential conflict affecting 20 percent of criminal cases currently pending in Orleans District Court.
“This is just the beginning. I expect that the AG is going to go on the offensive,” Goyeneche said.
Gov. Jeff Landry ordered the Orleans grand jury investigated after Murrill’s defense attorney, Laura Cannizarro Rodrigue, raised a series of allegations — including direct contact between the special prosecutor and Murrill, and leaks from jurors.
“I think even bigger than that, she will have a concern about what’s actually happening here in their grand jury process and she’s required to do that,” Cannizarro Rodrigue said. “That’s alarming. That should be alarming to everybody.”
Landry also pledged to pardon Murrill if she is convicted. Special prosecutor Laurie White responded directly to that pledge.
“Well good. Let’s get her indicted and then he can pardon her,” White said. “It’s going to be very simple. Very open and shut. Nothing difficult about it.”
Legally, Landry cannot pardon Murrill alone — he would need a recommendation from the pardon board first.
Mayor Helena Moreno said in a social media post that she is leaving the fight up to the courts.
Former New Orleans Mayor and Urban League President Marc Morial said the dispute goes beyond a city clerk of courts or a sitting attorney general. He said the governor is taking the state 75 years backwards, to a time when Baton Rouge attempted to wrestle control away from New Orleans.
“I could never imagine that in 2026, any governor would be taking a page out of the Earl Long playbook — a playbook of the 1950s,” Morial said.
“This business of attacking New Orleans, coming from the governor and the attorney general is so backwards, so unnecessary,” Morial said.
Media covering the case were forced out of the courthouse by Orleans Parish Sheriff’s deputies, who said they were acting on the order of Judge Leon Roche.
The grand jury indictment was not read in open court. Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure states grand jury indictments “shall be returned into the district court in open court.”
One producer was placed in handcuffs as their attorney attempted to file a motion to force an open reading.
Murrill said in a statement that the courthouse removal is something she is looking into. The Orleans Court responded, saying the secrecy of the grand jury is paramount.