An embattled George Soros-funded prosecutor resigned Thursday after bipartisan calls for her removal, the latest rebuke of far-left prosecutors across the country.
Kim Gardner, top prosecutor in St. Louis, quit her job amid a legal battle with Missouri’s attorney general Andrew Bailey, who sought to remove her for neglecting her duties. Her 2016 and 2020 campaigns were bankrolled by Soros, the billionaire known for funding campaigns for lax prosecutors.
"Unfortunately. since the time I took office, as the first Black, female prosecutor in the state, people outside of the city have targeted me and, to advance their goals, have also targeted the fundamental rights of the city's voters," Gardner said in her resignation letter published on Twitter.
Bailey fought in court to remove Gardner because she "lost the trust of the people," he said in February. The prosecutor fought back, blaming the personnel in her office for its failures.
Bipartisan calls for her removal followed several cases where Gardner made unpopular decisions.
In February, a teenage volleyball player lost both her legs when she was struck by a car driven by a criminal out of bond. The man had violated the terms of his bond several dozen times but wasn't held in custody.
In April, Garner’s office withheld evidence in a double homicide case, after which a judge allowed the suspect out on bail.
Gardner was widely criticized in March for the crime in her city when a video emerged of a man executing a homeless man on a St. Louis street.
An investigation by Fox News found that 35.8 percent of cases under Gardner's supervision in 2020 were not prosecuted.
In 2017, Gardner partnered with a Soros-backed group, the Vera Institute of Justice, which aims to end "mass incarceration" and "racial oppression" in the criminal justice system.
Gardner’s resignation comes as Soros-backed prosecutors face scrutiny across the country. Chesa Boudin, the former prosecutor in San Francisco, was ousted in a June 2022 recall election amid soaring crime in the city. House Republicans are investigating Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, who they claim is politically prosecuting former president Donald Trump and ignoring rising crime.
Soros defended his bankrolling of prosecutors in a July 2022 Wall Street Journal piece. "The funds I provide enable sensible reform-minded candidates to receive a hearing from the public. Judging by the results, the public likes what it’s hearing," Soros wrote.
The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund revealed in 2022 that Soros spent more than $40 million in the past 10 years to elect 75 progressive prosecutors, including Gardner, in half of America's largest jurisdictions.