GULFPORT - The legal team for Paul Minor, a trial lawyer indicted on federal racketeering and bribery charges, has accused prosecutors of trying to "stack the deck" by seeking jurors outside the 12 counties in the federal court's Jackson division.

Federal prosecutors this month filed a motion asking that jurors be selected from all 45 counties that make up the Southern District, including the Coast, which is heavily Republican. Minor has contributed thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and is the son of political columnist Bill Minor, whose writings lean toward Democratic candidates and platforms.

In the motion filed late Monday afternoon, Minor's attorneys say the federal government is trying to "skew" the process to have a jury pool more to its liking.

"The government's attempt to change the jury pool in this case adds support to those who think there was too much politics in the decision to file charges," said Abbe Lowell, one of Minor's attorneys. "We were not able to stop those charges, but we are going to fight tooth and nail to make sure the trial in this case is fair, and we are going to prevent the government from trying to stack the deck."

Minor was indicted this summer along with Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz Jr., Diaz's former wife, Jennifer, and former lower court judges John Whitfied and Wes Teel. The indictment alleges Minor received preferential treatment in court for financial favors. All of those indicted have pleaded innocent.

Robert McDuff, the attorney for Justice Diaz, said he had filed a similar motion.

"Normally for a case that's going to be tried in Jackson, the jurors are chosen from nearby counties," he said. "There is no reason to change that in this particular case. There is no reason not to use the normal procedure."

The federal government in its motion argued the jury pool should be larger because of extensive publicity in the Jackson area and the large number of lawyers who live there.

The motion "borders on the surreal," Lowell wrote in the court papers. He said lawyers make up less than 1 percent of the population in Hinds County and only 0.3 percent in the population of all the counties in the district. In regard to the pretrial publicity, he said there had been 51 articles in The Clarion Ledger newspaper concerning the judicial probe and 155 in The Sun Herald.

The fact that both newspapers circulate in the southern end of the state causes a "synergistic effect." People there are also more likely to read the articles, he wrote, because they are familiar with the defendants.

Albert Necaise, Teel's attorney, said he would make a decision on whether to file a similar motion after reading the court papers.

Michael Crosby, Whitfield's attorney, has sought to have the trial held on the Coast. Crosby said his goal is to have a fair jury, regardless of where its members live.

Attempts by The Sun Herald on Monday to reach U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton were not successful. James Kitchens, the attorney for Jennifer Diaz, also was unavailable for comment.