Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has said the “radical, left-wing social experiment” of Kim Gardner’s time as St. Louis’ circuit attorney is over.
On Tuesday, Bailey released a 53-page report on Gardner’s tenure in the position, which began in 2017.
In charge of prosecuting offenses inside the city limits of St. Louis, Gardner was reportedly the first black woman elected to the office, and she won reelection in 2020.
"She bragged about coming to office with a new approach to criminal justice focused on racial equity," Bailey told The Epoch Times. "She bragged about seeking to actively shrink the criminal justice system, and she did that by unlawfully refusing to do her job and let the criminals take over the streets."
The Missouri attorney general said the report on Gardner can be used as a blueprint for other states seeking to address "rogue, Soros-backed prosecutors who, rather than protecting their victims, are creating more victims."
"In a lot of major cities in the U.S., you have Soros-backed prosecutors who were like-minded with Kim Gardner," Bailey told the Times. "Any time you see that kind of dark money flowing into those races to buy those political offices, that creates enormous problems for the population."
In February, Bailey filed a quo warranto case against Gardner, seeking her removal from office after 17-year-old Janae Edmondson, a visiting volleyball player from Tennessee, lost both her legs as a result of a car crash caused by Daniel Riley, who was reportedly out of jail on a pending robbery case despite violating his bond conditions dozens of times.
According to Bailey, the accident symbolized the increased crime in St. Louis caused by Gardner’s refusal to prosecute cases.
Gardner announced in May that she would resign on June 1, but abruptly left her office on May 16, two hours before she was scheduled to sit for a deposition in the quo warranto case. According to the Times, Bailey dismissed the case but continued with his investigation of Gardner.
Bailey made several recommendations to the state’s general assembly in the report in an attempt to prevent another tenure like Gardner’s.
Despite the fact that Gardner’s whereabouts are unknown, Bailey told the Times he is exploring ways to hold her accountable.
The report noted that Gardner was working on a master’s degree in nursing during office hours when she was expected to be in court. She was paid approximately $281,000 in her position as circuit attorney, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
The report also stated that Gardner was heavily involved in the Vera Institute of Justice, a New York City-based organization that “partners with impacted communities and government leaders for change.”
The institute’s stated mission is to "end the overcriminalization and mass incarceration of people of color, immigrants, and people experiencing poverty."
Bailey told the Times that the group is actually a radical, left-wing organization whose goal is to dismantle the criminal justice system.
"[Gardner] partnered with the Vera Institute, and the Vera Institute became hopelessly intertwined in the operations of her office," he said. "That's the deadly social experiment that had catastrophic results."
"Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars flow through the Department of Justice in the form of grants to the Vera Institute yearly," Bailey added. "We're going to call on Congress to eliminate future funding ... to prevent empowerment of these rogue prosecutors."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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