Kim Gardner resigns from office

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner sits behind her attorneys in a courtroom, April 18, 2023, in St. Louis during the first hearing of a lawsuit by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey seeking to remove Gardner from office. Gardner announced Thursday, May 4, that she will resign effective June 1 amid calls from Republican leaders for her ouster. (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, Pool, File)
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner sits behind her attorneys in a courtroom, April 18, 2023, in St. Louis during the first hearing of a lawsuit by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey seeking to remove Gardner from office. Gardner announced Thursday, May 4, that she will resign effective June 1 amid calls from Republican leaders for her ouster. (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, Pool, File)

OAN’s Geraldyn Berry
3:12 PM – Friday, May 5, 2023

Soros-backed St. Louis prosecutor Kim Gardner has resigned from office on Thursday in the face of bipartisan calls for her resignation on allegations of negligence.

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In a letter to Republican Governor Mike Parson, released by Gardner’s office, the prosecutor said that she will be stepping down and the change will go into effect on June 1st.

Her resignation letter, which was made public on Twitter, said that “people outside the city” had “targeted” both her and the “fundamental rights of the city’s voters.”

“We have experienced an onslaught of records requests that no office in the country could reasonably fulfill, along with attacks on our hard-working line attorneys designed to demoralize these public servants,” she said. “There is no sign that the onslaught would stop for as long as I am in the office.”

In February, Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey initiated legal action to oust Gardner.

Bailey said that under Gardner’s administration, too many crimes went unpunished, including killings. He also mentioned that the relatives of victims were not notified in many cases, and that the prosecutor’s office was too “sluggish” to act accordingly in cases filed by the police.

In 2022, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of Just the News, John Solomon, had won a legal battle against Gardner, forcing her to turn in a large collection of papers that she had concealed after being required to comply with an open-records request.

Gardner added that her resignation was in effort to protect her residents’ rights to vote, claiming that political legislation may take away the city’s right to choose its circuit attorney and that outside supervision efforts have damaged the office.

“The most powerful weapon I have to fight back against these outsiders stealing your voices and your rights is to step back,” she said. “And so, it is with a heavy heart but steadfast resolve that I am resigning my position as your Circuit Attorney.”

During her tenure in office, Gardner had made headlines for pursuing a lawsuit against Republican former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens. The prosecutor claimed that Greitens had tried to extort money from a former mistress using a lewd photo he had taken during their extramarital affair. Gardner subsequently admitted that she had never actually seen the photo herself.

However, Greitens still confessed to the affair, resigned from his position, and denied any criminal culpability. Before the case reached trial, Gardner ultimately dropped all charges. Later, she appeared before a state legal tribunal and acknowledged feeling guilt in the case.

In turn, Greitens celebrated news of Gardner’s resignation on Twitter.

Parson has released a statement that he will immediately begin looking for a replacement and that he is “committed to finding a candidate who represents the community, values public safety, and can help restore faith in the City’s criminal justice system.”

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