Government

GOP Just Can't Quit Attorney General Who Killed A Guy As Impeachment Fails

GOP vote declares that even killing someone can't shake loyalty to the party.

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440px-JasonHeadshotA car accident, however tragic the consequences, is not grounds for impeachment. But a hit-and-run accident where the driver was scrolling websites on his phone and then, after striking a man so hard the victim’s glasses would be found inside the car, told law enforcement that he’d hit a deer, and got another citation for dangerous driving days before his plea? That might speak to a sort of disrespect for the legal process that might be unbecoming of the state’s top law enforcement officer.

That’s certainly what the state’s Republican governor thinks. She called on Jason Ravnsborg to resign early and has asked the South Dakota state legislature to impeach him in the alternative.

But the rest of her state party considered the situation and decided “respect for the rule of law that’s above reproach” is less important than “willing to pursue specious political claims” when it comes to selecting an AG. From Daily Beast:

A special investigative committee voted 6-2 against recommending impeachment, with six Republicans voting no, and the two Democrats favoring it.

Of course! Ravnsborg, who recently hired Trumpland dingbat Jay Sekulow to clear the injunction against South Dakota’s draconian abortion laws once the Supreme Court sweeps away Roe this year, is always willing to waste state taxpayer resources on performative litigation. He joined South Dakota’s name to Ken Paxton’s legally vapid election challenge. He sued over the vaccine mandate. And now Republicans in the legislature want him to go after Governor Kristi Noem for her use of COVID funds.

For her part, the governor who did more than any other to placate wingnut COVID deniers, is fully in touch with reality when it comes to Ravnsborg, tweeting yesterday that “Jason Ravnsborg killed a man, lied to investigators about the events of that night, and attempted to cover it up,” Noem said. “Joseph Boever’s family deserves justice.”

The speaker of the South Dakota House, Spencer Gosch, had this to say:

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“She does not like that man. I don’t know if it’s because he’s got ongoing investigations into her conduct, I don’t know what it is,” he said. “But she does not like that man. she’s been wrongfully accusing him of a lot of things in the past year and a half.”

It seems as though she’s accusing him of the things he pleaded guilty to doing, but whatever.

The modern conservative movement, especially its more local elements, embrace flouting the rule of law as a perverted extension of a patchwork conception of “small government.” How dare those fatcats say you can’t read Town Hall posts on your phone while driving back from Rooster’s Bar and Grill?

A lot of people thought the GOP’s dogged defense of Trump’s lawlessness amounted to cynical partisanship — and there may be elements of that — but the pump was already primed before Trump. The radical rejection of “law and order” in favor of “governments can’t tell me no” (with racial and gender carveouts of course!) was years in the making, congealing around gun control rhetoric. Vaccine deniers and Capitol insurrectionists just carried the trend to its logical conclusions.

So Ravnsborg keeps his job because, when it comes to embodying the GOP vision of law enforcement: pushing lies about voter fraud, yes… keeping people alive by respecting traffic laws, no.

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Attorney General Who Killed a Man Manages to Dodge Impeachment [Daily Beast]

Earlier: South Dakota AG Reaches Settlement With His Victim’s Family
South Dakota’s Actual Law Enforcement Peeved With AG’s Slap On The Wrist
State AG Killed A Guy… Judge Fines Him $1,000.
State AG Who Killed A Pedestrian Suggests It Was Suicide As Opposed To His Scrolling The Internet While Driving
State Attorney General Told Officers He’d Hit A Deer… In Reality, A Man Is Now Dead
State AG Killed A Man And Told Cops He’d Hit A Deer, Will Only Face Misdemeanor Charges
Dead Man’s Glasses Found INSIDE South Dakota AG’s Car
South Dakota AG Is Going To Keep Driving Dangerously Until He Kills Someone… Again

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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