FBI: Scruggs Paid 2 Men to Persuade AG

The AP reports:

A prominent attorney embroiled in a judicial bribery case paid two associates $500,000 to convince Mississippi's Attorney General not to file criminal charges against an insurance company, according to court records.

Plaintiffs lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, who sued State Farm Fire and Casualty Cos. soon after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was afraid the company "was not going to settle the civil cases" if the attorney general's office filed criminal charges, according to an FBI report filed Monday in the bribery case.

Attorney General Jim Hood would not answer questions Tuesday about an alleged meeting with two men the court filing says were paid to persuade him not to file charges. It's not clear exactly when the meeting took place, but was likely in the weeks before Hood reached a settlement with State Farm in January 2007.