Soros Funds Campaign of St. Louis Prosecutor Charging Couple for Protecting Home from BLM Protestors

A controversial city prosecutor investigated for abusing her power to pursue a bogus criminal case against a political nemesis and fined for campaign finance violations just received a hefty reelection contribution from leftwing billionaire George Soros. Her name is Kimberly Gardner and in 2016 she made history for getting elected as St. Louis Missouri’s first black chief prosecutor after serving in the state legislature. Gardner ran on a platform of reforming the criminal justice system, has wrongfully charged cops and conducted a two-year witch hunt of former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, who was exonerated of all wrongdoing. In that case, Gardner was forced to withdraw her indictment accusing the Republican governor of felony invasion of privacy for supposedly taking a compromising photo of his mistress and using it to keep her quiet about the extramarital affair.

Now the Soros-backed prosecutor is targeting the St. Louis couple, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, that defended their home last month when hundreds of Black Lives Matters protestors trespassed onto their property on their way to the St. Louis mayor’s house. The McCloskeys, both attorneys, confronted protestors with guns and demanded they leave their property. A local newspaper report describes the incident like this: “Americans saw the story they wanted to see. Some saw respected professionals fearing for their safety, reasonably exercising their Second Amendment rights to defend their home from violent trespassers. Others saw an overwrought, older affluent couple, recklessly pointing their weapons and asserting their white privilege.” The local prosecutor subscribes to the latter version. This week Gardner, whose official title is St. Louis Circuit Attorney, charged the McCloskeys with unlawful use of a weapon, a felony.

Shortly after the incident in late June, Gardner issued a public statement indicating that she would criminally charge the couple for protecting their property. “I am alarmed at the events that occurred over the weekend, where peaceful protesters were met by guns and a violent assault. We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation or threat of deadly force will not be tolerated. My office is currently working with the public and police to investigate these events. Make no mistake: we will not tolerate the use of force against those exercising their First Amendment rights, and will use the full power of Missouri law to hold people accountable.” Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, the state’s chief law enforcement officer, has filed a court brief seeking to get the case dismissed. “The right to use firearms to defend one’s person, family, home, and property has deep roots in Missouri law,” the court document states. “Self-defense is the central component of the right to keep and bear arms, which receives the highest level of protection from the Missouri Constitution. Missouri’s statutes specifically authorize Missouri citizens to use firearms to deter assailants and protect themselves, their families, and homes from threatening or violent intruders. A highly publicized criminal prosecution of Missouri citizens for exercising these fundamental freedoms threatens to intimidate and deter law-abiding Missouri citizens from exercising their constitutional right of self-defense.”

Almost half of St. Louis felony cases have been bundled by Gardner, according to news reports, and more than 65 attorneys have quit or been fired from the prosecutor’s office during her tenure. Among them is Rachel Smith, Gardner’s chief trial assistant, who resigned after 19 years in office. She was the fourth prosecutor to fill the role of chief trial assistant since Gardner took office in 2017. Last year Gardner was fined $63,009 for campaign finance violations after a Missouri Ethics Commission investigation found her election committee violated multiple campaign finance laws. The panel found that Gardner and her campaign failed to report around 100 contributions totaling over $305,000 and 255 expenditures totaling about $90,000.

Nevertheless, Soros’ support has not wavered. A Soros-linked group called Missouri Justice Public Safety PAC, recently gave Gardner’s 2020 campaign $78,000, according to a news article that includes her most recent financial report. The leftwing billionaire also funded Gardner’s 2016 campaign and has donated generously to leftist candidates in local prosecutor elections nationwide, including Houston, Chicago and Albuquerque. Judicial Watch has reported extensively on Soros’ global campaigns to further advance the left’s radical agenda abroad and domestically and published an investigative report on the financial and staffing nexus between his deeply politicized Open Society Foundations (OSF) and the U.S. government. OSF works to destabilize legitimate governments, erase national borders, target conservative politicians, finance civil unrest, subvert institutions of higher education and orchestrate refugee crises for political gain. With the help of American taxpayer dollars, Soros bolsters a radical leftwing agenda that in the U.S. has included: promoting an open border with Mexico and fighting immigration enforcement efforts; fomenting racial disharmony by funding anti-capitalist racialist organizations; financing the Black Lives Matter movement and other organizations involved in the riots in Ferguson, Missouri; weakening the integrity of our electoral systems; promoting taxpayer funded abortion-on-demand; advocating a government-run health care system; opposing U.S. counterterrorism efforts; promoting dubious transnational climate change agreements that threaten American sovereignty and working to advance gun control and erode Second Amendment protections.