Missouri’s Attorney General Sues To Remove Soros Funded Crime Enabling Saint Louis DA

https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/24/missouris-attorney-general-sues-to-remove-soros-funded-crime-enabling-saint-louis-da/

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey added additional evidence to his lawsuit on Tuesday to remove St. Louis circuit attorney Kim Gardner because she “knowingly and willfully failed to do her duties as a prosecutor in many ways,” Bailey’s office said in a press release.

Gardner is the local DA elected with money from George Soros who prosecuted Saint Louis homeowners instead of the Black Lives Matter mob of some 300 rioters who threatened them, filed a blatantly political prosecution of former Missouri Republican governor Eric Greitens, and allowed criminals to walk free, resulting in a high school volleyball player losing her legs after a released criminal plowed into her with a car.

Bailey’s suit alleges Gardner’s failure to properly execute the duties of her office is so bad she must be removed from office. Bailey grounds the lawsuit’s argument in the circuit attorney’s constitutional duty. Per the Missouri Revised Statutes, those duties include “to manage and conduct all criminal cases, business and proceedings of which the circuit court of the city of St. Louis shall have jurisdiction.”

The new charges in the case result from the state attorney general’s office reviewing some 30,000 documents and interviewing new witnesses, that office says. The new information includes alleging an eight-month backlog on reviewing warrant applications, that Gardner agreed to “extraordinary bond reductions…involving serious, violent crimes,” and that because of her gross mismanagement assistant circuit attorneys are severely overworked and quitting at high rates.

While Gardner has been circuit attorney, the courts in her jurisdiction have dismissed 2,735 criminal cases, the suit says. “The majority were dismissed,” the complaint argues, “due to [Gardner’s] failure to prosecute, her failure to comply with speedy-trial requirements, or her failure to comply with discovery obligations.”

One defendant was charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action on February 5, 2021, Bailey’s complaint says. The trial date was set for this February. The day before the trial, say the legal documents, Gardner’s assistant circuit attorney—for whom she is constitutionally responsible—instructed the plaintiff not to appear in court.

Accordingly, at the trial, the defense was present, but the state was not. Consequently, the court ruled to dismiss the case without prejudice for failure to prosecute.

In another instance, the defendant faced charges of first-degree murder, armed criminal action, and unlawful use of a weapon. The defense counsel requested discovery, some of which the state provided. However, believing that the state had withheld seven lab reports, the defense filed to compel discovery, says Bailey’s lawsuit.

Before the trial day came, however, Gardner’s assistant assigned to prosecute the case left on maternity leave. No one was assigned to replace her, so the state neglected to show up again and the court dismissed the case, the lawsuit says.

Since 2015, billionaire businessman George Soros spent heavily on local district attorney elections across the country. He donated $125,000 to Gardner’s re-election campaign in 2020, and to elections and the subsequent judicial dysfunction in Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Florida, Texas, Virginia, and several other localities.

His strategy to support leftists at the local level has wreaked havoc on those districts’ criminal justice. Soros threw his weight into Kimberly Foxx’s re-election bid to the state attorney in Chicago, investing a full $2 million, and Chicago is now one of the least safe cities in America.

Fairfax County, Virginia DA Steve Descano received $392,000 from Soros or Soros PACs, according to the Heritage Foundation. Earlier this month, Heritage says, Descano dropped a case against a man who rammed a minivan with a mother and her children inside.

Judicial officers that display clear evidence of pro-criminal attitudes have forfeited their positions, as Bailey states in the complaint. “[Gardner] is thus a usurper who must be removed from the office of Circuit Attorney.”