SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — With less than 24 hours until a special session on his possible impeachment in the South Dakota House of Representatives, Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg sent a letter to all members of the House asking them to not impeach him.
His letter warns state representatives of the “dangerous precedent” impeaching him could set, saying it could mean all elected officials would need to be held accountable for any “traffic accident.”
Ravnsborg also accuses Governor Kristi Noem of politically weaponizing the matter, saying “she took the unfortunate circumstances of a man being killed in a traffic accident to make her political moves.”
He also mentioned that his office has multiple ongoing investigations into the Governor’s alleged activities and people associated with her.
The letter from the attorney general also included a list of “evidence, allegations and misinformation” regarding the crash and impeachment.
You can find that document, here.
This comes just a few hours before the House of Representatives is set to meet Tuesday morning to consider the attorney general’s possible impeachment.
Here is Ravnsborg’s letter to lawmakers:
On Tuesday morning, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem issued a response to the attorney general’s letter on her Twitter account.
“The people of SD deserve to know the truth. The facts speak for themselves. Anyone who wants to know the facts should ignore the AG’s bizarre letter and instead read Secretary Price’s letter to Speaker Gosch and watch the Highway Patrol presentation from last week,” Gov. Noem said in a Tweet.
Noem goes on to say the attorney general wants to “make this about me [Gov. Noem] to distract the House members, when the question before them is whether he should be the state’s top law enforcement officer. He killed an innocent man, lied about the events of that evening, and abused his office to cover it up.”
The governor says the attorney general “had months to offer his testimony to the impeachment committee but instead waited until the night before the House meets.”
Governor Noem fininishes her statement by saying “The question for the House is whether they believe all of the law enforcement officers who investigated this case are lying? Jason does; I do not. I stand with law enforcement.”
The House is set to gather at 11 a.m. Tuesday to look at whether Ravnsborg’s actions included “impeachable offenses.”
KELOLAND News will be covering the meeting. We’ll bring you the latest updates on-air and online.
