The saga of Alex Murdaugh continues as the convicted double-killer has been accused of violating his plea deal by lying to the FBI about $6 million in missing money.
His defense attorneys, who say he was manipulated, now want investigators to put their cards on the table before a court potentially comes down hard on their client next week.
Federal prosecutors filed documents Tuesday alleging the disgraced former lawyer hasn’t been truthful about cash he said he blew on drugs. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina followed suit by asking a judge to nix the terms of a plea agreement Murdaugh struck with feds — which included he undergo a polygraph test — and instead sentence the defendant to 100 years in prison when he goes to court in South Carolina on Monday.
A polygraph administered in October indicated Murdaugh lied during interviews with the FBI, according to The Associated Press.
It’s alleged the 55-year-old convict hasn’t been forthcoming about his dealings with an unidentified lawyer, who may have assisted Murdaugh in swindling clients and stealing from the law firm Murdaugh’s great-grandfather started in 1910. Investigators believe his claim that more than $6 million in stolen money went to fund his drug habit is not in fact true.
Prosecutors asked the court to keep the results of that lie detector test and information about his four conversations with federal agents private while he continues to be investigated.
But Murdaugh’s attorneys argued Thursday that their client — who maintains he killed no one — denies lying to feds, claiming he was intentionally asked confusing questions. They want any information showing otherwise to be made public.
“There are legitimate questions as to whether the Government intentionally manipulated the results to void the plea agreement and achieve the prosecutors’ stated desire to ensure that he’s never a free man again,” Murdaugh’s defense lawyers Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian wrote in their response filing Thursday. “The public has a right to know the truth of the matter through judicial proceedings that are open and transparent, not closed and sealed.”
Murdaugh is already serving a life sentence in a state penitentiary for killing his wife and adult son in June 2021.
He reached a deal with prosecutors in November to serve 27 years for financial crimes he committed before gunning down Maggie and Paul Murdaugh on the family’s sprawling Moselle. The 22 charges against him were pursued so he would remain in prison if his murder convictions were for some reason overturned. He was denied a new trial in January.
He’s accused of stealing at least $12 million, but claims to have blown half of it on narcotics after developing an opioid addiction. That portion of Murdaugh’s alleged windfall hasn’t been accounted for otherwise.
Prosecutors believe the murder of Murdaugh’s wife and son were meant to convolute investigations into his financial crimes.
With News Wire Services
