In an unusual pre-emptive move, state Attorney General Jeff Landry posted a video Wednesday that sought to rebut an investigation into his business practices by The Times-Picayune and The Advocate that had yet to be published.

The story, published Friday morning, described a partnership between three businesses tied to Landry and a Texas man who has since been convicted of visa fraud. That man, Marco Pesquera, has said he conspired with Landry, his brother Benjamin, and others to bring hundreds of Mexican welders into the U.S. under false pretenses – and to make big money off their labor.

The 10-minute video, recorded by Benjamin Landry, portrayed the Landry brothers as unjust victims of a liberal newspaper hoping to damage one of the state’s highest-profile conservatives. Though he is not quoted in it, Jeff Landry tweeted the video and posted it on his Facebook page. The video says it was paid for by his campaign.

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Among Ben Landry’s chief gripes in the video was that the newspaper sent reporters to knock on his door, and those of associates -– something the paper did on Jan. 9 after weeks of calls and emails had gone unreturned. Those actions, he said, were especially insensitive given that his mother died on Dec. 29.

“They have gone so far as to send reporters across the state at the same time we were grieving our mother’s passing,” he said. “To show up unannounced at my home, and the homes of other local families. They even went so far as to peer into the windows of an associate’s home, standing on his property unannounced and uninvited, scaring the neighbors who thought they were burglars.”

Ben Landry portrayed his older brother as an inveterate entrepreneur who continues to own various companies but has ceded oversight of them to others, including Ben.

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Since entering politics, he said, “Jeff has relied on others to manage his businesses and has had minimal personal involvement. His focus has been on the responsibilities of his office.”

The newspaper’s story focused on the role of several firms owned by the Landry brothers in the construction of a major liquid natural gas terminal in Cameron Parish.

In Ben Landry’s telling, his brother’s firm, Evergreen Contractors, was essentially doing a public service by helping to fill a labor shortage that would have kept the multi-billion-dollar project from getting finished.

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“One of our managers, Mr. Juan Castillo, who works with Evergreen Contractors, learned that a company based in Texas was in need of local help in assisting with this project,” he said.

The primary contractors “had reached the capacity of who they could find for an immediate need for temporary skilled labor to keep the project on track and on schedule. With our expertise and experience in these services, and servicing temporary projects, and with our Louisiana base, we were asked to help.”

Pesquera, the Landrys’ former business associate – who is now serving a three-year term in federal prison – has said he and the Landry brothers’ firms filed misleading or false documents in order to get visas for Mexican welders and pipefitters.

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Ben Landry strenuously objected to that claim. He portrayed himself as an honest broker who turned in Pesquera as soon as he figured out what the con man was up to, and criticized the newspaper for giving Pesquera any credibility.

“The Advocate went to a convicted criminal, a person who caused us tremendous difficulty,” Landry said. “Someone on whom I blew the whistle to shut down his potentially fraudulent business practices.”

In his video, Ben Landry said the newspaper was on a “crusade against my brother,” probably “because he is a conservative.”

He said that his late mother, Edna, would have said that was because the Landry brothers were doing God’s work.

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“She would say to me, the level of persecution that you experience from your actions are directly tied to the righteousness you’re working toward,” he said. “It was the same with Jesus, even in his perfectness.”