Alex Murdaugh may be called to testify in federal trial for South Carolina banker Russell Laffitte: report

Alex Murdaugh could be called to testify in the federal trial for South Carolina banking scion Russell Laffitte, according to a report. 

Murdaugh’s attorney, Jim Griffin, said that his client would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if called to testify during the federal case in Charleston, the Post and Courier reported. 

But at a pre-trial hearing on Monday, Laffitte’s defense attorney, Bart Daniel, argued that a jury should be able to see that Murdaugh refused to answer questions regarding his dealings with the banker.

Later in the day, federal prosecutors submitted a brief saying they were against bringing Murdaugh to the stand if he won’t testify, arguing that the jury should not be permitted to be influenced by a witness’ decision to plead the Fifth. District Judge Richard Gergel has yet to announce any decision. 

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The federal trial against Laffitte will still open Tuesday, representing the first time one of Murdaugh’s associates will face a jury over their alleged crimes. Laffitte, the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank, was the target of the first federal indictment seen in connection to Murdaugh’s long-spiraling fall from grace.  

Murdaugh, whose family ran a prominent personal injury law firm for about a century, pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the June 2021 killings of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and their 22-year-old son, Paul Murdaugh, found shot by different firearms by dog kennels on the family’s sprawling hunting estate. Murdaugh's father, grandfather and great-grandfather also controlled the area’s elected prosecutors for 87 consecutive years. 

The murder charges came in July following a 13-month investigation. But state prosecutors have been tight-lipped about what evidence allegedly ties Murdaugh to the double homicide, defense has attempted to sow public doubt that the disbarred attorney was responsible ahead of his January 2023 trial. 

Meanwhile, Laffitte, whose family founded Palmetto State Bank in 1907 in the same rural town of Hampton, South Carolina, where the Murdaugh’s too would rise to prominence, is facing six federal counts alleging he conspired with Murdaugh, a bank customer, to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.  

Laffitte acted as the conservator or financial representative for Murdaugh’s personal injury clients. 

Among the alleged victims connected to the federal indictment are Alania Spahn and Hannah Plyler. The now adult sisters were seriously injured in a 2005 tragic rollover automobile accident that killed their mother and brother. 

Children at the time, they relied on Murdaugh, Laffitte and Palmetto State Bank to manage their finances until they turned 18. But instead, Laffitte and Murdaugh allegedly betrayed their trust and "plundered their conservator accounts and treated it like their own personal slush fund," Plyer attorneys Eric Bland and Ronald Richter said. 

Laffitte has reportedly testified that he simply did what Murdaugh asked of him and was not aware of the lawyer's alleged schemes. Federal prosecutors will need to prove intent in order to secure a conviction. 

According to state prosecutors, Murdaugh was a drug addict who helped run a money laundering and painkiller ring and stole about $8 million from settlements for wrongful death or injury he secured for mostly poor clients. 

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Laffitte was fired from Palmetto State Bank in January when allegations came to light that he helped Murdaugh and Murdaugh’s lawyer friend and college roommate, Cory Fleming, steal from a legal client named Hakeem L. Pinckney, a deaf athlete rendered a quadriplegic following a rollover car accident that seriously injured his family members. 

Two months before becoming the center of the federal case, Laffitte had been indicted for the first time in May by a state jury for the alleged scheme victimizing the Pinckney family.