Questions raised by the Langston guilty plea story
Langston is pleading guilty to an attempt to influence Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter in the Wilson v. Scruggs fee dispute case. An execllent and helpful account of that case is in this comment. Langston is apparently stating that he paid Ed Peters (former Hinds County district attorney and DeLaughter’s boss when DeLaughter was an assistant district attorney) $1,000,000 to influence Peters, and that Peters did whatever he did for that money without ever entering an appearance in the case. According to Langston and Balducci, Peters did not give any of the money to DeLaughter.
What did Peters do? Well, he told Langston and Balducci that Judge DeLaughter would like to be a federal district judge.
It should cost less than $1,000,000 to learn that– I would think damn near every single state court circuit judge would like to be a federal judge.
And apparently, that lead to a “courtesy call” being arranged by Senator Trent Lott to DeLaughter about an open judicial slot, but Lott then gave the slot to someone else.
However, DeLaughter did rule for Scruggs (and, as described in the comment linked above, the ruling was a shocker).
So, does this leave the bribery allegations swirling around DeLaughter for the last couple of weeks as having been an attempt? It has been widely rumored that Lott was going to surface in this, and that the timing of his resignation really wasn’t a coincidence. Is that call it? And what did Peters do? These questions await answers when more of the story emerges.
FOLO
1/13/8
Magnolia Tribune
