The attorney for a St. Louis couple who brandished firearms at protesters trespassing on their property filed a motion this week to dismiss the felony charges brought by Soros-funded St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner.
Attorney Joel Schwartz, who is representing Mark and Patricia McCloskey, accused Gardner of using her case against the McCloskeys as part of her reelection campaign — which has been boosted by liberal billionaire George Soros — after it was revealed that she sent campaign emails stating the couple had “pointed guns at peaceful citizens.”
“Here, a reasonable person with access to all the facts would find that there was at least the appearance of impropriety, in that Ms. Gardner’s decision may have been affected by her personal, political, financial, and professional interests, and that her neutrality, judgement, and ability to administer the law in an objective manner may have been compromised,” Schwartz wrote in the filing, according to a local news outlet.
Several of Gardner’s reelection emails included references to the McCloskeys.
“You might be familiar with the story of the couple who brandished guns during a peaceful protest outside of their mansion,” one of Gardner’s email said.
“Instead of fighting for the millions of Americans affected by the pandemic, including 31,000 Missourians, President Trump and the Governor are fighting for the two who pointed guns at peaceful citizens during the Black Lives Matter protests,” it said.
These emails included a link to a donation page in which she vows to “hold those accountable who are perpetuating a system of police brutality.”
This isn’t the only example of “impropriety” the McCloskeys’ attorneys have found.
Another recent investigation found that Gardner deliberately tampered with available evidence in order to press felony charges against the McCloskeys.
The evidence includes Patricia McCloskey’s gun, which was deemed inoperable when she confronted the violent protesters who were trespassing on private property.
But Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner ordered the city’s crime lab to reassemble the gun into working order after confiscating the firearm so that she could score a conviction against the McCloskeys.
Missouri law requires the state to prove that firearms are “readily capable of lethal use.”
Because Patricia McCloskey’s gun was inoperable at the time of its “use,” Gardner would not have been able to score a conviction based on the felony charges brought against her.
But because the city’s crime lab reassembled the gun, Gardner is able to claim that the gun was, in fact, operable at the time and press charges that could carry a sentence of up to four years in prison.
Gardner has also failed to disclose several trips that were paid by liberal activist groups, according to an investigation by KMOV4.
Elected officials in St. Louis are required by law to disclose travel and whether it was funded by public or private dollars.
But Gardner did not disclose any of the trips she took in 2018 or 2019 that were sponsored by a liberal organization called Fair and Just Prosecution, which has lauded her efforts to prosecute the McCloskeys.
It is not clear how many of these funded trips Gardner took. But sources who work inside her office told KOMV4 that she traveled enough that it became a problem.
She was often unreachable, which made it difficult to make decisions about budgets, grants, and personnel issues like hiring and firing, the outlet reported.
Gardner, however, refused to apologize for failing to report these trips, and claimed that accusations of wrongdoing are “insulting.”
“Circuit Attorney Gardner refuses to apologize for seeking reasonably opportunities to further her knowledge and access prosecutors from throughout the nation for best practice.
The suggestion that she would be persuaded to follow an alternative that is not focused on addressing the root causes of crime for a few plane tickets and hotel rooms is insulting,” Gardner’s office said in a statement.
Because of Gardner’s carelessness, she is already being challenged in the Democratic primary by Mary Pat Carl, who previously worked as the city’s lead homicide prosecutor.
Bill Hall, a professor of political science at Webster University in suburban St. Louis, said the ongoing battles she’s picked with fellow city officials, and her inability to live up to her campaign promise to crack down on violent crime, are hurting her reelection chances.
“She has to answer for the things that she has done for the past 3½ years, and I think that’s where people are disappointed,” Carl said.
“She said in 2016 she would be committed to tackling violent crime,” he added. “It’s grown worse. There’s no plan.”
Associated Press contributed to this article.
