COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Lawyers for convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh are trying to figure out what happened to the millions of dollars he stole from clients and a South Carolina law firm. He wants to make public statements he made to the FBI about whether he may have cooperated in the theft. money.
Murdaugh’s lawyers made the request in a court filing Thursday after federal prosecutors asked a judge earlier this week to keep the statements secret. They argued that Murdaugh was not telling the truth and that the plea agreement on the theft and other charges should be thrown out at a sentencing hearing scheduled for Monday.
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Prosecutors believe Murdaugh is trying to protect the lawyer who helped him commit the theft, saying Murdaugh’s claims that more than $6 million of the stolen money went toward his drug habit are untrue. thinking. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said releasing the statement could harm the ongoing investigation.
Alex Murdaugh, who was convicted of murdering his wife Maggie and younger son Paul in June 2021, faces a new trial hearing on Tuesday, January 16, 2024, at the Richland County Justice Center in Columbia, South Carolina. attend. Court documents say federal prosecutors are trying to figure out what happened to the $6 million Murdaugh stole and whether a so-far anonymous lawyer helped him and whether he wants to rescind a plea deal on federal financial crimes charges. He said he was not telling the truth. (Tracy Glantz/Associated Press, Pool)
But Mr. Murdaugh’s lawyers said FBI agents could simply black out information they didn’t want made public, leaving much of the statement public and allowing people to judge the allegations for themselves.
“Allowing the government to publicly accuse Mr. Murdaugh of violating his plea agreement, while allowing the government to suppress all evidence that purportedly supports the accusations from the public, violates the public’s right to know the truth.” ,” wrote attorneys Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian.
Murdaugh, 55, is already serving a life sentence in state prison without parole after a jury convicted him of murder in the shooting deaths of his wife and second son. He later pleaded guilty in state court to stealing money from clients and his own law firm and was sentenced to 27 years in prison, although South Carolina prosecutors said this would be the case if his murder conviction was overturned. He said it was an insurance policy to keep him locked up in prison in case of an emergency.
The federal case was supposed to provide further insurance, with Murdaugh agreeing to a plea deal in which his federal sentence would run concurrently with his state sentence.
Murdaugh’s lawyers said Monday’s court hearing in Charleston would have to be held in private if prosecutors were able to keep the FBI’s statement secret, and Murdaugh’s right to hear the case in public. was denied.
The FBI said it had interviewed Murdaugh three times last year. Investigators gave him a polygraph test in October after determining he was not telling the whole truth about his plans to steal from his clients and law partners.
Investigators said Mr. Murdaugh failed the test, and federal prosecutors argued that a September plea agreement in which Mr. Murdaugh promised to fully cooperate with the investigation was invalidated.
Prosecutors now want Murdaugh to receive the harshest sentence possible since he violated his plea agreement, and to serve his federal sentence after completing his state sentence.
Each of the 22 charges Murdaugh pleaded guilty to in federal court carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Some can last up to 30 years.
State prosecutors estimate that Murdaugh stole more than $12 million from clients by diverting settlement funds to his own accounts and stealing from his family’s law firm. Federal investigators estimate that at least $6 million of that amount is unaccounted for, but Murdaugh says he spent lavishly on illegal drugs after becoming addicted to opioids.
Investigators said as Murdaugh’s financial scheme was about to be exposed in June 2021, he became a sympathetic figure and began dating his wife in hopes of diverting attention from the missing money. He said he decided to kill his son. Outside his family’s home in Colleton County, Paul Murdaugh was shot several times with a shotgun and Maggie Murdaugh was shot several times with a rifle.
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Murdaugh adamantly denied killing them and even testified in his own defense against the advice of his lawyer.
Federal prosecutors said Murdaugh appeared to be telling the truth about the roles banker Russell Laffite and lawyer and college friend Corey Fleming played in helping carry out the theft. .
Mr. Laffite was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison, while Mr. Fleming has been in prison for nearly four years since pleading guilty.
