Missouri Legal professional Normal Andrew Bailey’s focusing on of Democrats is legally questionable, consultants say, however it’s helped to additional his profession nationally: “The more outrageous you are, the more you are going to attract the attention of Donald Trump.”
In late July, Missouri state troopers walked into St. Louis County authorities headquarters and seized the cellphone of one of the crucial outstanding Democratic officers on this solidly pink state.
Two days later, a grand jury indicted Sam Web page, the St. Louis County govt. Performing as a particular prosecutor, Missouri Legal professional Normal Andrew Bailey, a Republican, secured two felony counts of stealing by deceit and two election-law violations.
For Bailey, bringing felony fees towards the chief of the state’s largest blue stronghold added to the resume of a MAGA warrior who had already interviewed for a key place in President Donald Trump’s administration.
Lower than three weeks later, Trump tapped Bailey to assist run the FBI. He’ll function co-deputy director with Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and conservative podcast host. Bailey stated he’ll resign as Missouri’s lawyer normal on Sept. 8 to take the put up. A spokesperson stated he was not taking questions from the media.
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The case towards Web page was the most recent in a string of authorized strikes towards Democrats by Bailey, bringing the complete weight of the state on a political adversary. It wasn’t about bribery or self-dealing. Web page, the highest elected official in a county with about 1 million residents, wasn’t accused of stealing a dime for himself.
As a substitute, the costs turned on one thing mundane: the printing and mailing of flyers weeks earlier than a few measure on the poll in April — the sort of informational materials native governments usually ship to voters and the type of motion that consultants stated had by no means led to prison fees in Missouri.
The election requested voters to offer the County Council the ability to fireside the county’s division heads and its prime lawyer. Web page spent greater than $25,000 of taxpayer cash to print and mail flyers to voters outlining the measure. The flyer at situation didn’t overtly inform voters to vote no, however it listed teams that opposed it, together with the police board and NAACP, and it quoted a state decide’s ruling that the poll language was deceptive and unfair. It additionally recommended {that a} sure vote would permit administrators to be fired for political causes or in emergencies and {that a} no vote would keep steady management.
Paperwork filed within the case towards Web page additionally confirmed that he didn’t observe a county lawyer’s recommendation to make some adjustments to the flyer. Bailey alleged that the flyer crossed the road from offering info, which is authorized, to urging a no vote, which he stated was an illegal use of tax {dollars} — and, in his view, grounds to hunt felony fees.
If convicted on probably the most critical rely, Web page may face three to 10 years in jail and $10,000 in fines. He may additionally face removing from workplace and sanctions towards his medical license; he’s an anesthesiologist, although he doesn’t at the moment apply full time.
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Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi appointed Ed Martin, who had labored as an lawyer in Missouri, to move the U.S. Division of Justice’s Weaponization Working Group and to analyze two outstanding Democrats, New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James and U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff of California, on allegations of mortgage fraud.
“Bailey really was auditioning for that role, or something like it, and what better way to show loyalty than to do exactly what Trump wants on the federal level, but replicated on the state level,” stated Paul Nolette, the director of the Les Aspin Middle for Authorities at Marquette College. “It’s a template for what type of approach Bailey is going to take on the federal level. Political opponents are going to get targeted.”
Bailey has referred to as himself a defender of the rule of legislation, portraying his high-profile lawsuits and investigations in Missouri as obligatory to guard the state from what he has described as unlawful or unconstitutional actions by the federal authorities and abandonment of the rule of legislation by the left.
Web page turned county govt in 2019 after a federal corruption case toppled his predecessor, Steve Stenger. Web page had led a bipartisan bloc on the County Council towards Stenger, who was sentenced to almost 4 years in federal jail for a pay-to-play scheme that steered county contracts to political donors. (St. Louis County wraps round — however doesn’t embrace — the a lot smaller impartial metropolis of St. Louis.)
The cooperative spirit collapsed as Web page set St. Louis County on the aggressive finish of Missouri’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, issuing early emergency orders limiting gatherings and indoor eating. That stance put him at odds with state officers who have been transferring to curb native energy.
Regardless of this and different political battles, Web page has twice gained countywide elections — first in 2020 to complete Stenger’s time period, then in 2022 to a full four-year time period. He has stated he’ll resolve by the tip of the 12 months whether or not to run once more in 2026. He’s scheduled to be arraigned on Friday.
A Web page spokesperson referred inquiries to his lawyer, Jeff Jensen, a former U.S. lawyer in Missouri throughout Trump’s first time period. Jensen didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Many have questioned the legitimacy of the case and whether or not Bailey’s successor, Catherine Hanaway, will see it by means of. Hanaway, additionally a former U.S. lawyer, in addition to a former speaker of the Missouri Home of Representatives, didn’t reply to questions.
“It certainly seems, based on my reading of it, a stretch,” stated Peter Pleasure, a legislation professor at Washington College in St. Louis and an skilled in authorized ethics and trial apply. “It would be an uphill battle for the state to make this charge stick.”
Ken Warren, a political scientist and pollster at Saint Louis College, stated the costs have been “totally phony” however that “the more outrageous you are, the more you are going to attract the attention of Donald Trump.”
“Let’s say the same thing occurred but the county executive happened to be a Republican,” Warren stated. “Would Bailey go after him? Of course not.”
Missouri has turn into a proving floor of kinds for Trump appointees. Martin — a longtime state GOP insider with a report of stoking controversies — was named the U.S. lawyer for Washington, D.C. After it turned obvious he couldn’t win Senate affirmation, he was moved to the administration’s pardon workplace and the Justice Division’s weaponization group.
Ed Martin speaks on the Capitol in Washington in June 2023.
John Sauer, a former Missouri solicitor normal and anti-abortion activist who final 12 months helped bankroll a marketing campaign to defeat Missouri’s abortion rights poll situation, defended Trump’s declare to presidential immunity earlier than the Supreme Courtroom. Now, as U.S. solicitor normal, he serves because the federal authorities’s prime advocate earlier than the Supreme Courtroom.
Will Scharf, who misplaced a main bid final 12 months to unseat Bailey, pivoted straight into Trump’s authorized inside circle. Then there’s Billy Lengthy. The six-term ex-congressman was confirmed in June as IRS commissioner — regardless of having as soon as pushed to abolish the company — amid scrutiny over his ties to questionable tax-credit plans. He was not too long ago ousted and stated he’ll turn into ambassador to Iceland.
That roster of loyalists is not any accident. Over the previous 20 years, Missouri has moved from being a aggressive bellwether state to a deep-red stronghold, with a political surroundings that rewards the sort of hard-line conservatism and culture-war ethos that Trump prizes.
John Danforth, a Republican who served as Missouri’s lawyer normal from 1969 to 1976 after which as a U.S. senator till 1995, stated the workplace has shifted dramatically from its core mission. Underneath him, he stated, the job was to characterize state companies, deal with each felony enchantment, reply to authorized opinion requests and handle litigation with a small workers. Requested a few transfer final 12 months during which Bailey investigated a St. Louis-area faculty district after a scholar was overwhelmed throughout faculty hours — blaming its range insurance policies and removing of useful resource officers for security failures — Danforth stated, “I wouldn’t have done it.”
Because the state has shifted proper, many races are successfully determined within the main. Candidates don’t have to win over most voters, based on political consultants and observers — simply the small, very political group that reveals up for low-turnout, winner-take-all primaries. That favors hard-line candidates.
Nowhere is that change clearer than within the lawyer normal’s workplace.
Bailey is a U.S. Military veteran who served two excursions in Iraq as an armored cavalry officer. He began his profession as an assistant Missouri lawyer normal, then labored as a prosecutor. He joined the governor’s workplace as deputy normal counsel in 2019 and later served as normal counsel to then-Gov. Mike Parson.
Andrew Bailey speaks with reporters exterior the Supreme Courtroom in Feb. 2023.
His politicization of the lawyer normal’s workplace follows a path blazed by two predecessors, Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, who every used comparatively transient tenures because the state’s lawyer normal to launch themselves into the U.S. Senate. In Hawley’s case, out-of-state political consultants have been embedded within the workplace from his first weeks on the job, directing taxpayer-funded workers, shaping his coverage rollouts and boosting his nationwide profile forward of his Senate run. Schmitt used the workplace to wage headline-grabbing authorized fights, from suing China over COVID-19 to difficult pandemic restrictions, elevating his profile as he ready his personal Senate marketing campaign.
Neither Hawley nor Schmitt might be reached for remark.
After Schmitt was elected to the Senate in November 2022, Parson introduced that he would appoint Bailey to fill the emptiness. That arrange a high-profile Republican main final 12 months towards Scharf, a candidate with backing from the conservative institution. Bailey gained 63% of the vote and cruised to a simple general-election victory in November.
Inside every week, Bailey was interviewing with Trump for the job of U.S. lawyer normal within the new administration.
With no Democrats holding statewide workplace and a GOP supermajority within the legislature, Bailey has turned his fireplace on Democratic officers in Missouri’s two largest cities. He pressured St. Louis Circuit Legal professional Kim Gardner to resign by submitting a lawsuit to take away her from workplace that alleged willful neglect of obligation and a failure to prosecute violent crimes, and he not too long ago sought to take away St. Louis Sheriff Alfred Montgomery, accusing him of misconduct. Gardner repeatedly denied any wrongdoing earlier than resigning; later she acknowledged misusing some public funds. Montgomery has denied wrongdoing and has refused to resign.
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Kansas Metropolis Mayor Quinton Lucas has additionally been a frequent goal: Bailey threatened a Missouri Human Rights Act investigation into Lucas and his workers after a city-run social media account, responding to a speech by the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs soccer participant Harrison Butker about girls being homemakers, named the suburb the place Butker lived. The town deleted the put up and apologized. Bailey framed the put up as discrimination towards Christians.
Final 12 months, Lucas recommended town may gain advantage from asylum-seeking immigrants becoming a member of the native workforce, then clarified that he meant immigrants who have been within the U.S. legally. Bailey — who had sued the Biden administration over what he referred to as an “illegal” parole program for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela — accused Lucas of attempting to contain Missouri companies in a “fundamentally unlawful program.” He posted a letter on the social media platform X calling Lucas’ feedback “wildly irresponsible” and stated he was “putting him on notice that it is a Class D felony to knowingly transport an illegal alien in the State of Missouri.”
Lucas responded in a press release then that Bailey’s letter was “a political campaign press release with no legal effect.”
“It’s not effective lawyering,” Lucas stated in a latest interview. “It’s a whole new branch of lawyering that I, as a lawyer, didn’t grow up knowing, which is: If you get a story out, who cares if you drag people through the mud?”
Bailey, then again, has stepped as much as defend Republican allies. His workplace intervened to defend three GOP state senators who have been sued for false gentle invasion of privateness after wrongly figuring out a Kansas man because the shooter at a Tremendous Bowl parade honoring Kansas Metropolis’s NFL crew — and falsely calling him an undocumented immigrant.
Two of the senators referred to as the lawsuits frivolous, whereas Bailey has argued the posts have been protected by legislative immunity, because the senators have been performing of their official capability.
Lawsuits towards two of the officers, who’re represented by the Missouri deputy solicitor normal, a high-ranking lawyer within the lawyer normal’s workplace, stay pending in federal court docket.
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