Soros-Backed Prosecutor Pushed by Missouri AG to Resign Has History of Scandals, Alleged Misconduct

The George Soros-bankrolled prosecutor in St. Louis who’s facing calls from Missouri’s governor and attorney general to resign for allegedly neglecting her duties already had a history riddled with allegations of misconduct and mishandled cases long before her latest scandal.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner is no stranger to controversy, encountering admonishment for her handling of criminal cases on several occasions. {snip}

However, Gardner is currently facing an unprecedented push for her ouster after volleyball player Janae Edmonson, 16, was hit by a vehicle and lost both her legs while visiting St. Louis with her team last weekend.

The man charged for the incident, 21-year-old Daniel Riley, didn’t have a driver’s license when he was speeding, failed to yield, and caused the collision. He was out on bail awaiting trial for an armed robbery from 2020 and had violated the terms of his bond at least 50 times, according to local reports.

Gardner’s office, which is responsible for monitoring compliance with bond conditions and revoking them when those terms are violated, didn’t ask for Riley’s bond to be revoked.

Following the tragedy, Gardner received a wave of bipartisan criticism from officials, including calls for her to resign from the governor and state legislative leadership, as well as a legal effort by the Missouri attorney general to fire her. {snip}

Gardner is one of the first prosecutors whom Soros, a liberal billionaire and Democrat megadonor, bankrolled in 2016 — and again for her reelection in 2020.

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During Gardner’s tenure, crime spiked in St. Louis, with the city experiencing near-record murder rates. The last two years were among the city’s deadliest in decades, despite murders being down from 2020. Last year, WalletHub calculated that St. Louis had the highest homicide cases per 100,000 residents from July through September of any U.S. city, ranking it the most dangerous city in the country because of high rates of crime and other dangers like car accidents.

Amid high homicide figures, Gardner has declined more cases, issued fewer arrest warrants, charged fewer felonies, and prosecuted thousands of fewer cases overall than her predecessor. She has also deferred prison sentences for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies as part of her reform initiatives.

Gardner says all this is part of her “platform to reduce the number of cases unnecessarily charged in order to focus on the more difficult cases for trial.”

In 2021, though, Gardner came under fire after three murder cases under her purview were dismissed in one week due to prosecutors in her office not showing up for hearings or being unprepared.

Critics point to such examples to argue that Gardner’s policies, conduct, and leadership are the cause of increased crime.

“In 2020, I personally responded to a shooting of two teenagers in Missouri, and saw again first hand more victims of Gardner’s Soros-funded lawlessness as two more promising young men were murdered that night,” former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens told Fox News {snip}

Gardner infamously oversaw the failed 2018 prosecution of Greitens for allegedly taking an unwanted nude picture of a woman and threatening to release it if she talked about their affair. {snip}

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In 2021, Missouri’s chief legal disciplinary officer accused Gardner of rampant misconduct in her prosecution of Greitens, saying she lied to judges in court filings and testimony, withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense, misled her own prosecution team, and violated the constitutional right to a fair trial.

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As the fallout from the Greitens case was unfolding, Gardner was also scrutinized when a judge barred her from prosecuting Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a couple charged after defending their home and pointing weapons at protesters who were marching through their neighborhood.

Gardner was removed from the case after featuring it in her campaign fundraising emails. {snip}

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Despite the mounting pressure, Gardner has remained defiant, refusing to leave her office.

“The attorney general, as others, use this unfortunate incident and tragic happening to this young lady as a political stunt of an unelected individual,” she said Thursday. “This is nothing more than voter suppression, which we’ve seen on a national level as well as in the state of Missouri.”

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{snip} She also suggested racism was behind some of the criticism against her, adding, “We’re going to fight very hard for justice in spite of the vitriol, the hate, the racist attacks, the known manipulation of the court procedures to make sure our office fails.”

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