Ronnie Musgrove's U.S. Senate campaign says it would be unfair for people to cast doubts on the former governor because of a new round of federal indictments over a failed Mississippi beef plant.

Campaign manager Amanda Crumley said, "Ronnie Musgrove had nothing to do with the awarding of any of the contracts related to the beef processing plant and at no time did anyone try to influence him regarding the awarding of such contracts."

Musgrove was not charged or named in the indictments of three executives of a Georgia-based architecture, construction and engineering company. But an attorney for one of the executives is asking the court for permission to use two polygraph examinations that his client took in 2006.

The indictments were handed down in February and unsealed Tuesday.
Papers filed with the court show that Robert Moultrie, chairman and chief executive officer of The Facility Group, was asked during one of the exams about Musgrove.

Musgrove was Mississippi governor from January 2000 to January 2004, the period covering the development and failure of the beef plant.

Although Moultrie said in the polygraph exam that he did not expect a payoff for contributing to Musgrove in 2003, political foes are sure to seize on any chance to connect Musgrove's name to the failed beef plant.