Lott accused of encouraging witnesses to give false information

[cal04]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/30/lott-accused-of-encouraging-witnesses-to-give-false-information/

Former Mississippi senator Trent Lott, who left Congress last year to become a lobbyist, is alleged to have “urged witnesses to give false information in a Hurricane Katrina lawsuit.” In a sworn deposition last week, an attorney for State Farm Fire & Casualty Cos. asked Lott’s nephew, Zach Scruggs, who had represented the former senator after his house was destroyed by Katrina, if it had been his “custom and habit in prosecuting litigation to have Senator Lott contact and encourage witnesses to give false information?” “I invoke my Fifth Amendment rights in response to that question,” replied Scruggs.


Lawyer suggests Scruggs got witness help from Lott

An insurance company's attorney suggested during a sworn deposition that former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott urged witnesses to give false information in a Hurricane Katrina lawsuit, according to court records.

The implication was made last week during a deposition with Lott's nephew, Zach Scruggs, who represented the former Mississippi Republican senator after his Pascagoula home was destroyed by the 2005 storm. Zach Scruggs is the son and law partner of disgraced former attorney Richard ''Dickie'' Scruggs, Lott's brother-in-law.

''Has it been your custom and habit in prosecuting litigation to have Senator Lott contact and encourage witnesses to give false information?'' State Farm Fire & Casualty Cos. attorney Jim Robie asked, according to a transcript of the deposition.
http://cbs4denver.com/businesswire/22.0.html?type=national&serviceLevel=f&category=f&filename=APFN-MS-Katrina-State.xml

[williesgirl]

1. One more Repuke criminal that'll never be jailed. Sickening. rec'd

[LiberalFighter]

2. Why would the attorney ask that question? Hmmm Must be a reason.

[baldguy]

3. Can you say "obstruction of justice"?

[norepubsin08]

4. Why am I not surpirsed?

Lott needs to be cuffed and frog marched to the Federal Courthouse!

[SeattleGirl]

5. I think it would be more newsworthy if one of the Rethuglicans told

the TRUTH.

Are any of them even CAPABLE of it???

[babylonsister]

7. Ha! No kidding. I hope every last one of them is hounded down myself.

Ugh.

[intheflow]

8. Having seen Mississippi up close post-Katrina,

this doesn't surprise me a bit. It give me great pleasure to k&r this to get the word out on this travesty. What he did to his home state after Katrina was criminal and immoral in too many ways to count. :grr:

[babylonsister]

6. This could be really big. I hope it is. WOW! nt