South Dakota's legislature is moving to impeach its attorney general after investigators uncovered a hit-and-run victim's glasses in his car
- South Dakota’s attorney general is facing impeachment and calls to resign.
- AG Jason Ravnsborg was charged with three misdemeanors in connection to a fatal car crash.
- New details have since emerged with the victim’s glasses found in Ravnsborg’s car.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg is facing impeachment proceedings and calls for his resignation over criminal charges in connection to a fatal hit and run crash.
Ravnsborg was charged with three misdemeanors last week after initially saying he thought he hit a deer, not a person. Pressure for his ouster mounted on Wednesday when it became public that the victim’s glasses were found in Ravnsborg’s car.
“His face was in your windshield, Jason. Think about that,” a detective told the AG in an interrogation on Sept. 30, video of which was released on Tuesday.
The video came from South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who called for Ravnsborg’s resignation earlier in the day. Republicans in the state legislature also filed articles of impeachment on Tuesday.
On Thursday, Noem promised she would release more documents surrounding the investigation, and the Republican house speaker outlined the next steps for impeachment, which include the formation of a committee with ten lawmakers to investigate whether the conduct constitutes an impeachable offense.
Notably, Noem and the lawmakers who filed the articles of impeachment are fellow Republicans, with Ravnsborg elected to the post in 2018 after securing the nomination at the South Dakota GOP’s convention.
Investigation materials released in recent days have cast further doubt on Ravnsborg’s initial story. Phone records show he logged into a Yahoo email account and visited news sites in the minutes before he called 911, according to a compilation by the Argus Leader newspaper out of Sioux Falls.
After emerging from a meeting to announce the articles of impeachment on Tuesday, Republican state Rep. Will Mortenson of Pierre said the attorney general should not go to prison, but needs to be held accountable.
“This is not political, and it is not personal,”Mortenson said. “Again, I do not believe Attorney General Ravnsborg belongs in prison, but I know he does not belong in the Office of the Attorney General anymore.”
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