JACKSON, Miss.- The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled that Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith should be permitted to resume his duties as DA.
Smith was temporarily disqualified from operating as DA after Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Jeff Weill ruled against him.
Criminal charges were filed against Smith in June of this year citing that he was illegally assisting defendants. The law states that the attorney general and all district attorneys should not “consult, advise, counsel or defend” a person charged with a crime.
He was arrested by the FBI in June.
“Those who are sworn to uphold the law are not above the law,” said Donald Alway, special agent in charge of the FBI in Mississippi at the time of the arrest. “…charges are only allegations, public corruption poses a fundamental threat to our national security and way of life. It impacts everything from how well our borders are secured and our neighborhoods protected…to verdicts handed down in courts. The FBI appreciates the close cooperation on this matter with the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office.”
Schuler responded that the “allegations are not only false, but designed to denigrate the credibility of the Hinds County District Attorney.”
The full text of the Court’s decision can be found here.
