Former U.S. senator and current lobbying consultant Trent Lott has been suffering because of guilt by association for a time now. His brother-in-law is Dickie Scruggs, so his nephew is Zach Scruggs. But now that suffering might be more concrete, e.g. criminal charges.
State Farm Insurance, through its attorney Jim Robie, is investigating whether Lott urged witnesses to give false statements. That allegation, of course, is very serious. Robie deposed the Scruggs in regard to an alleged fraudulent claim his law firm filed in regard to State Farm's processing of Hurricane Katrinia homeowners' claims. One of those claims, as we recall, was Lott's. That deposition was taken last week and soon enough the Scruggs filed a motion to have its contents sealed.
During that deposition, reports Scott Sabatini in LEGAL NEWSLINE, Zach took the Fifth Amendment when asked by Robie, "Has it been your custom and habit in prosecuting litigation to have Senator Lott contact and encourage witnesses to give false testimony?" The focus of this deposition was, says Sabatini, "to get to the bottom of former Mississippi senator's role in a scheme to defraud the insurance company [State Farm] in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina." That role could have been for Lott to contact and persuade them to give information that was not true.
There's more. Some time ago, Lott's name also emerged in connection with an alleged bribery plot. During the Scruggs' legal problems which culminated in his being sentenced for five years, one of the other convicted attorneys testified that Dickie told him to attempt to bribe a county circuit judge with Lott's influence. The bait was supposed to be that Lott could put him on a list for a federal vacancy. The aftermath of that was that Lott did contact the judge. However, he did not actually nominate him for a federal vacancy. After that, as many of us remember, Lott suddenly resigned from the Senate. Shortly after that he launched his lobbying consulting firm The Breaux Lott Leadership Group.
Will this new shadow cast over Lott be a hit to his business? Or, worse, will Robie be able to dig up concrete evidence to charge Lott with a number of criminal acts? Although Robie has a handful of dust right now in terms of the deposition with Zach taking the Fifth, he has other avenues to explore. As a results of Scruggs' post-Katrina suits, State Farm's reputation suffered immensely. Given that, Robie is probably determined to, as he said, "get to the bottom" of any Lott's alleged illegal activities.
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