South Dakota AG Impeached And Booted From Office

CNN reports:

The South Dakota state Senate on Tuesday voted to convict and remove state Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg from office on two articles of impeachment after he struck and killed a pedestrian in September 2020, making Ravnsborg the first elected official to be impeached and removed in the state’s history.

The Senate needed approval from two-thirds of the Republican-controlled, 35-member chamber to convict and remove Ravnsborg. The vote was 24-9 in favor of conviction and removal on the first article, committing a crime that caused the death of a person. The vote was 31-2 on the second article, malfeasance in office.

Pierre’s ABC News affiliate reports:

24 senators voted in support of the first article of impeachment, the bare minimum needed for it to succeed. Republican Sen. Timothy Johns of Lead was one of only two senators to oppose the second article, which was for malfeasance.

“If you really analyze the evidence, I don’t think we have any evidence here that anything he did was done with an evil or an improper, corrupt purpose,” Johns said. “I don’t see it.”

In addition to removing Ravnsborg from office, the senators also barred him from holding statewide office again.

South Dakota’s Senate voted to remove the attorney general, Jason Ravnsborg, from office after he fatally struck a man with his car in 2020. https://t.co/jKOCjZW6eZ

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 22, 2022

After nearly 2 years the dark cloud over the Attorney General’s office has been lifted.

It is now time to move on and begin to restore confidence in the office.

— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) June 21, 2022