Murrill opposes Orleans DA Jason Williams’ motion to quash subpoena

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - In a court filing Tuesday (July 21), Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill responded to Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams’ motion to quash a subpoena related to her July 2 indictment.

The subpoena requires Williams to produce records and communications related to the grand jury proceedings that resulted in Murrill’s indictment on malfeasance and public intimidation charges.

Murrill was asked by Fox 8 about her filing opposing Williams’ motion.

“I really can’t say much about it,” she said. “I mean, I think I’m going to let, I need to let those pleadings speak for themselves.

“It obviously is a very serious matter that I take very seriously. So, I’m going to continue to address it through the court system, which I think is appropriate. It’s what I said was always appropriate from the outset.”

In his motion, Williams said Murrill is “seeking 20 separate items of records, including communications, emails, documents, policies and procedures, correspondence with certain elected officials, one judge, and members of the media.”

In her filed response, Murrill said, “the records sought are relevant and specific, tracing directly to irregularities the Supreme Court found credible enough to halt a felony prosecution of a sitting attorney general on an emergency basis.”

Attorney and Fox 8 legal analyst Joe Raspanti said he is not surprised by Murrill’s motion.

“No, they have to answer his motion, and that’s all this is,” he said. “This is just their brief on their position that they are, in fact, entitled to all this stuff.”

Williams’ office recused itself from the proceedings against Murrill in June. His motion claims the subpoena directed to him is “facially defective and contrary to law.”

The charges stemmed from letters Murrill sent to Mayor Helena Moreno, Williams and other city officials that allegedly threatened them with removal from office if they continued to oppose a new state law that consolidated the Orleans Parish civil and criminal court clerks into one position.

Later Tuesday, Moreno and the other officials allegedly victimized by Murrill sent letters to special prosecutor Laurie A. White, urging her to dismiss the case against Murrill. Williams submitted his own letter in which he appeared to straddle the line, saying he supported the grand jury’s work but also saying he would not oppose the case being dropped.

Moreno, other city officials allegedly threatened by Murrill urge special prosecutor to drop case

Raspanti said, “From an outside perspective, it looks like the Attorney General wants to know very much about communications between and amongst counsel, DA, special prosecutor. And they are fighting to not release those types of things.

“I think, at the end of the day, all this could be deemed moot if Liz Murrill would simply file a motion to quash (the indictment), which the Supreme Court asked for and indicated they would grant, in my opinion. But, for whatever reason, they’ve decided not to do that and to take this circuitous route through the legal system.”

Murrill’s motion also refers to a conversation it says was had between an attorney in her office and White.

That attorney “swore in an affidavit that on July 2, 2026, just before the grand jury returned its indictment, special prosecutor Laurie White told him in the hallway of Criminal District Court that she was attempting to not have the grand jury vote on the indictment that day and that she did not even bring any indictment paperwork with her that day,” Murrill’s filing says.

Grand jury proceedings are by law supposed to be conducted in secret.

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