George Soros-funded St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner lost her second appeal to be reinstated as prosecutor on the case against Mark and Patricia McCloskey this week after being disqualified from the case last year.
The Missouri Court of Appeals struck down Gardner’s plea to be reassigned to the case so she could file charges against the McCloskeys, agreeing with Circuit Judge Thomas Clark II that she behaved improperly when she first took up the case.
Clark removed Gardner from the case for initiating a “criminal prosecution for political purposes” following reports that she used the charges against the McCloskeys to circulate fundraising emails for her reelection bid.
“Prosecutors are held to a higher standard legally, ethically and politically,” Al Watkins, an attorney for the couple, said in a statement at the time. “When you swing and miss on all three you have to hit the lockers.”
One of Gardner’s campaign emails stated: “Kim needs your help to fight back!,” noting she was under “national scrutiny from our divisive President, the Republican establishment of Missouri, and the right-wing media, including Fox News.”
Gardner will now have to take her case to the Missouri Supreme Court if she wishes to continue pursuing the couple in a prosecutorial role.
The McCloskeys were charged with unlawful use of a weapon in addition to evidence tampering following the circulation of the viral video that showed the duo confronting protesters in front of their St. Louis home in a gated community.
Both pleaded not guilty to the charges in October, arguing that they were only acting in self-defense.
“[They said] that they were going to kill us,” Patricia McCloskey told Fox News in July about the protesters outside her home. “They were going to come in there. They were going to burn down the house. They were going to be living in our house after I was dead, and they were pointing to different rooms and said, ‘That’s going to be my bedroom, and that’s going to be the living room, and I’m going to be taking a shower in that room.'”
