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A grand jury has hit Louisiana’s attorney general with a 16-count felony indictment Thursday over accusations she threatened New Orleans officials who fought a Republican court overhaul.

Getting into it: Attorney General Liz Murrill was charged with eight counts of malfeasance and eight counts of intimidation. Murrill, a Republican and the state’s first female AG, is accused of trying to strong-arm officials including Mayor Helena Moreno, District Attorney Jason Williams, and five city council members. Williams later stepped aside and recused himself from the probe.

The fight goes back to a state law that abolished the Orleans Parish criminal clerk’s office, a job won at the ballot box by Calvin Duncan, who spent nearly three decades in prison before being exonerated. New Orleans leaders opposed the change and moved to install a competing clerk and call a special election. Murrill responded in May with letters warning those officials they could lose their jobs under Louisiana’s “usurper” laws.

This resulted in Judge Leon Roche issuing an arrest warrant and setting her bond at $25,000 per charge, totaling $400,000. Laurie White, the special prosecutor appointed after Williams stepped aside, announced the indictment outside the courthouse. “We’re very interested in elected officials in New Orleans not being intimidated or threatened by letter or any other way,” White said.

Murrill fired back hard, calling the case “retaliatory, meritless, and unconstitutional” and the investigation “corrupt.” She accused White of violating grand jury confidentiality and said the jury leaked information “like a sinking ship.” She said she planned to run straight to the Louisiana Supreme Court with an emergency writ.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry threw his weight behind Murrill, promising to pardon her “as fast as the law allows” and blasting what he called the “Orleans Kangaroo court.” He also ordered state police to investigate what he described as improprieties by the grand jury. Asked about the pardon offer, White told reporters: “Good, let’s get her convicted and then he can pardon her.”

The Republican Attorneys General Association defended Murrill too, saying she was just doing her job and laying out a legal opinion for local officials, and calling the indictment “as outrageous as it is dangerous.”