(Photo from Hinds Co. DA office)
- A spokesperson for the FBI said federal agents were executing search warrants sealed by the court.
The FBI raided the offices of Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens along with a business owned by the county official on Wednesday morning.
Agents were stationed outside of Owens’ DA offices at the Hinds County Courthouse while the Downtown Cigar Company on Pearl Street in Jackson was taped off with crime scene notices and another business, Downtown Daiquiri and Pizza, was also surround by federal agents.
In a statement sent to Magnolia Tribune from the FBI, the federal agency said officers were executing federal search warrants at the multiple locations.
“The affidavit in support if the search warrants has been sealed by the court and so I am prohibited from commenting further,” said Marshay Lawson, FBI Public Affairs Officer. “There is no threat to public safety.”
When asked if they knew what the FBI raid on Owens’ office and business pertained to, spokespersons for the Attorney General’s office and the Department of Public Safety had no details to share at the time.
A request for comment from the U.S. Attorney’s office has also gone unanswered.
Owens has not commented on the matter.
The DA was elected in 2019 and re-elected in 2023. Prior to winning election as DA, Owens was the Chief Policy Counsel and Managing Attorney of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mississippi Office. He previously worked for the late Senator Thad Cochran as a legal intern for the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee and is an Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Navy Reserves where he is holds the rank of Lieutenant.
