A member of Attorney General Jeff Landry’s management staff resigned earlier this month after a second sexual harassment complaint against him surfaced, adding to a series of controversies Landry has dealt with over the past couple of months.
Pat Magee, the director of the Louisiana Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, submitted his resignation to Landry in an email that called the allegations false and unjust.
“Let me be very clear – I did not commit, nor do I condone sexual harassment in the workplace, or anywhere,” Magee said in the email. “An official independent and outside investigation underscored that my conduct did not rise to the level of sexual harassment.”
The allegations and related media coverage of the office had become a distraction for those working in the Attorney General’s Office, he said. The charges included Magee’s alleged use of sexually suggestive language while making hiring and administrative decisions.
“It is for these reasons and the nature of the entire matter that I submit my resignation from the Office of the Louisiana Attorney General,” Magee wrote.
Landry received pushback from the Washington-based Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press last month for filing a lawsuit against a reporter for The Advocate who had sought public records relating to complaints against Magee.
On other fronts, representatives of the state’s oil and gas industry criticized a legal settlement with the mining company Freeport-McMoRan over degradation to coastal wetlands resulting from decades of oil industry activities. Landry gave the state’s authorization to the settlement, which resulted from private law firms filing lawsuits on behalf of parish governments.
The attorney general also made news when it was disclosed that one of his companies was involved in an effort to bring Mexican labor to Cameron Parish to work on an energy project.
Despite these incidents, Landry is not in any major political trouble at the moment, according to G. Pearson Cross, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
“However, he is clearly embattled and in conflict with several actors and institutions,” Cross told the Louisiana Record in an email. “This seems to be Mr. Landry’s operating style. He is abrasive and conflictual, often rubbing people the wrong way. These characteristics and the bad press he’s received for advancing a scheme to provide foreign labor in Louisiana, prevent transparency in the Pat McGee case and sign the oil and gas settlement are just the latest examples.”
Even so, he doesn’t expect these incidents to hurt the attorney general, one of the most visible public officials in the state, in the short term.
“They will provide ammunition for opponents in any future campaign he might wage for higher office and will, no doubt, feature prominently in attack ads should such a campaign take place,” Cross said.