The Louisiana Supreme Court on Friday stayed the criminal case against state Attorney General Liz Murrill, a day after she was accused of threatening the jobs of New Orleans officials.

The state’s high court said the local court and special prosecutor in the case failed to follow proper procedures in the proceedings surrounding the indictment, including multiple local media reports that the court handcuffed and restrained a journalist who was trying to report on the grand jury action.

Friday’s suspension puts the case on hold, at least for now. Murrill, a Republican, said she intends to ask a court to dismiss the case, which shows a deep divide between Republican state officials and the Democrats who control the state’s most populous city.

“I hope this political witch hunt is not a harbinger of things to come,” he said in a statement Friday, “but I fear it is.”

The 16-count indictment returned Thursday by a New Orleans grand jury accused Murrill, the state’s first female attorney general, of intimidation and misconduct.

The Supreme Court says the charges were deeply flawed.

“This indictment appears to turn the law on its head and arises from what appear to be extraordinary procedural flaws and irregularities,” the court said in a document signed by Judge Jay McCallum, a Republican.

The court says there are likely conflicts of interest involving Laurie White, the special prosecutor and former state judge who brought the charges, including the fact that the attorney general’s office is defending her against a sexual harassment lawsuit.

McCallum’s explanation also notes that the law used in the intimidation charge against Murrill requires that the threats be “unlawful or include a threat of bodily harm or death.”

The court also concluded that the attorney general is likely to get the case dismissed and would suffer irreparable harm if the case goes forward.

The case follows a major political battle in Louisiana.

This year, the state abolished the New Orleans criminal court clerk job, merging it with another court clerk position. That action came months after Calvin Duncan, who spent decades in prison before his murder conviction was overturned, was tapped for the criminal clerk’s job.

Murrill and other Republican officials have refused to acknowledge Duncan’s innocence, even though he is listed on the National Registry of Exonerations.

The court noted that Duncan was previously represented by White, calling it a “likely conflict of interest.”

A letter from Murrill to New Orleans City Council members and Mayor Helena Moreno came after the city council set a special election that would have given Duncan the opportunity to fill the combined clerk position. Murrill told the officials they could lose their positions for violating state laws that prohibit supporting an unauthorized official.

Murrill has said he was doing his job.

After the indictment was issued Thursday, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, said he would pardon Murrill. The governor also said on social media that he was directing state police to investigate “the alleged irregularities of this grand jury and those who directed it.”