Thread by @BigElad

Our appointed, inexperienced, sham of an Attorney General is at it again.

Yesterday, in order to get on cable news for about 4 minutes, our Attorney General filed a brief in the McCloskey case.

He pretended like he filed some special motion to dismiss the case. He didn't.

1/

It's another attempt to deceive the public, like the time he filed a fake lawsuit against China but filed nothing against Chinese-owned Smithfield that continues to abuse Missouri workers and farmers...

2/

...or the time he said St. Louis's prosecutor released looters when in fact she's prosecuted more than 20 people while his big anti-crime program has prosecuted none...

3/

...or the time he filed another voluntary, non-binding brief at the Supreme Court to support workplace discrimination and then said he didn't mean it...

4/

...or the time he told a newspaper he was enforcing his conflict of interest policy but I exposed that he was in fact taking campaign donations from targets of his investigations, investigations that happened to end very favorably for his donors.

But what's one more lie?

5/

Our Attorney General cannot move to dismiss criminal charges against a Defendant. That's not how our system works. Our Attorney General hasn't practiced much criminal law, and certainly not much at all before he was appointed to his position a short while ago.

6/

He also apparently doesn't realize that he was appointed Attorney General, not King of America. His powers aren't unlimited because, well, this is America, and we have laws, a constitution, and a concept called separation of powers.

7/

I suppose we could change Missouri's laws to create one statewide prosecutor and eliminate local control, but we vote on those decisions, not just silently cede them to political appointees who want to run for the next big office.

8/

When you're charged with a crime, the Attorney General cannot enter the case for you. The Attorney General cannot move a court to dismiss your case. Maybe he doesn't know that. That wouldn't be surprising. He's botched many parts of the law in his stint as Attorney General.

9/

But, maybe more likely, he does know. And he doesn't care. He just wants the spotlight, even if that means revving up Missourians, even if it means making false promises, whatever it takes to get him on cable TV.

10/

I was on This Week in Missouri Politics on Sunday. I got asked about this whole case, and I said the same thing: What are we doing? Police investigated the situation, talked to witnesses, watched videos, and recommended a low-level felony charge to the prosecutor.

11/

The Republicans on the panel agreed with me. The public and TV talking heads don't know all the facts in this case, but this has become another excuse for everyone to say I'm right and you're wrong. And our politicians milk it and exploit our divisions for all they're worth.

12/

This is where our Attorney General has chosen to spend taxpayer resources - on another fake legal action that can, by law, get no results - while children are being shot and killed in their homes.

13/

This is the case he's outraged about while he is also spending taxpayer resources keeping innocent people in prison who have lost decades of their lives and have been exonerated by the evidence.

14/

This is his big civil rights cause when he has refused to start an actual Civil Rights Division at his office - like other states have done - that would protect all of our rights no matter how much attention Tucker Carlson gives your case.

15/

Now he is worried about defendants' rights when he fought so hard to defund our overwhelmed public defender system and advocated for the spending of millions of dollars to build more prisons.

16/

Our Attorney General isn't our lawyer. He's a crook. He has become one of the frauds he swore to protect us from. All to get on cable TV.

I hate cable TV.

17/

And if you hate how broken our government is, how exploited we all are by frauds like this guy, I hope you'll consider our campaign and hire a real Attorney General on August 4 and again on November 3.

eladgross.org

18/18