JACKSON - A federal judge began giving jury instructions in Mississippi's judicial bribery case on Wednesday and prepared jurors for closing arguments.
The case involves an alleged scheme in which one of the state's most high profile and politically active attorneys is accused of bribing a state Supreme Court justice and two former lower court judges.
Attorney Paul Minor is charged with using cash, loans and gifts to secure favorable decisions in cases before Justice Oliver Diaz Jr. and former Gulf Coast judges John Whitfield and Wes Teel. All four defendants have pleaded innocent to federal bribery and fraud charges. Minor has pleaded innocent to an additional count of racketeering.
The defendants claim the charges are politically motivated.
Closing arguments were scheduled to begin late Wednesday. However, U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate spent the day reading jury instructions and the 41-page indictment to jurors.
Wingate said closing arguments would begin today.
Wood benches behind the defendants table on Wednesday were filled with the defendants' families and supporters - including U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.
Minor has been involved in several landmark cases and reportedly made millions in the state's successful litigation against tobacco companies in the 1990s. He has donated heavily to national and state political races.
Diaz was once considered a rising star in Mississippi politics and served as a state legislator before taking a seat on Mississippi's high court in 2000.
A federal judge dismissed a solicitation of bribery charge against Minor on Tuesday and earlier dismissed two counts against Diaz. Minor still faces more than a dozen counts ranging from racketeering to bribery and Diaz now faces four charges, including bribery and mail fraud.
Wingate threw out extortion and solicitation of bribery charges last week against Diaz, ruling the justice had not been linked to conversations in which Minor allegedly pressured two attorneys to give thousands of dollars to Diaz.
Minor allegedly said Diaz that could overturn a multimillion-dollar settlement before the Supreme Court if the attorneys did not pay up.
Wingate dismissed the solicitation charge against Minor when prosecutors failed to offer a compelling argument on how Minor could solicit a bribe for Diaz when Diaz was no longer named in the count.
During the trial, prosecutors have called dozens of witnesses and tried to establish a link between cash withdrawals from Minor's account and interest payments made on loans he secured for the judges.
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