Louisiana‘s Republican attorney general is facing criminal charges of trying to intimidate elected officials and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Liz Murrill was indicted yesterday by a New Orleans grand jury on 16 felony counts, specifically 8 counts of malfeasance in office and 8 counts of public intimidation. The situation stems from a battle between GOP legislators and local officials over the local court system. This would specifically have eliminated the position of Orleans Parish Criminal Court Clerk, currently held by Calvin Duncan, who spent almost 29 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit before being freed in 2021, as recorded by the National Registry of Exonerations. In November 2025, Duncan ran as the Democratic candidate for the job and won with a resounding 68% of the vote. Duncan’s candidacy was strongly opposed by Republicans, with Murrill in particular disputing that Duncan had been “exonerated” and threatening legal action against him. When that failed, the GOP legislature rushed through SB 256 / Act 15, which would have abolished Duncan’s position. The law was considered by Duncan’s supporters as a targeted move to prevent Duncan from taking office and to undermine the will of Democrat-supporting New Orleans voters in a Republican-dominated state. Even if she’s convicted, the governor says he’ll pardon her Now Murrill has been accused of threatening 8 New Orleans officials, including Mayor Helena Moreno and District Attorney Jason Williams, that if they didn’t support the bill, they’d be fired. She responded to the indictment (via Nola.com): “This unprecedented action and the corrupt indictments spawned from it are retaliatory, meritless, and unconstitutional. After confidential information was illegally leaked to members of the press by the grand jury or the improperly appointed, unqualified special prosecutor, there are now indications that the court handcuffed and locked out members of the media — and threatened them with contempt — in clear violation of Louisiana law.” Republicans have slammed the grand jury’s decision. The Republican governor, Jeff Landry, has said (via The Guardian) that if Murrill were convicted by a jury, he’d pardon her “as fast as the law allows”. The Republican Attorneys General Association is also furious, saying that pursuing these charges against Murrill is “as outrageous as it is dangerous” and defending her alleged threats to elected officials as simply her “issuing a legal opinion and warning public officials about the law”. As of writing, Murrill remains at large, and her bond has been set at $400,000 ($25,000 per count). It is unclear whether she plans to surrender herself to authorities voluntarily or if she will have to be forcibly arrested. In the meantime, this is far from the only drama coming out of Louisiana these past few weeks involving elected officials, as former DeRidder mayor Misty Roberts was jailed for sexual assault of a 16-year-old boy, and Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy lost his primary after a dispute with Donald Trump.