FBI Searches Scruggs Firm for 'Ancillary' Document
Updated: The FBI searched the law offices of Richard “Dickie” Scruggs Tuesday in Oxford, Miss.
Agents were looking for a document “ancillary” to the Hurricane Katrina insurance litigation, the Sun Herald reports.
The search reportedly spanned several hours, during which time agents barred employees from the office.
A lawyer for Scruggs, whose office is representing thousands of policyholders suing insurance companies over hurricane damage, is quoted as saying that the FBI search is unrelated to both the criminal contempt charge against Scruggs in Alabama and the legal battles in Mississippi between his firm and Attorney General Jim Hood.
“It is a search warrant for a thing, a document,” Oxford, Miss., lawyer Joey Langston is quoted as saying. “I don’t think anyone has made an allegation that the Scruggs Law Firm has done anything improper or illegal. I think that the federal authorities will probably learn when they complete their investigation that whatever the allegation of wrongdoing is, that the Scruggses were not involved.”
The Associated Press later reported that agents made copies of hard drives, but took nothing else.
Hat tip to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. Updated at 4:38 p.m., CST.
