果酱视频 County residents midday Wednesday encountered a story that sparked political flashbacks: County Executive Sam Page had been indicted by a grand jury for, among other allegations, theft in excess of $25,000 in public money.
At first glance, it sounded as if Page had followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, former County Executive Steve Stenger, who in 2019 was convicted and imprisoned on bribery charges for corruption in office.
As it turns out, though, that鈥檚 not actually the story here at all. Page engaged in (highly) questionable use of public funds to lobby the public against a ballot measure 鈥 a relatively minor if grubby infraction that isn鈥檛 in the same legal universe as the felony theft with which Page is charged.
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Which makes no sense at all until you consider the driving force behind the indictment: Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican who, with this latest stunt, has outdone even his own unprecedented record of shamelessly abusing his power in service to partisan political goals.
In fact, if using public funds to mislead the public on an issue was a major felony, Bailey himself would be behind bars for his various misrepresentations of fact in Missouri鈥檚 abortion debate alone.
By even seeking a felony theft indictment under these circumstances, Bailey has arguably engaged in far worse malfeasance than anything Page is accused of. It鈥檚 past time that the Missouri Bar Association step up and rein in this out-of-control lawyer before he does any more damage to the justice system with his bottomless ideological malice.
None of this is to excuse what Page, a Democrat, did. Faced with a measure on last April鈥檚 ballot, Proposition B, that would have given the County Council the power to remove Page鈥檚 appointed department heads, he used county funds to produce and mail out a flyer to 50,000 county residents arguing against it.
Page has characterized the flyer as being merely 鈥渋nformational鈥 and not an effort to sway the public 鈥 an assertion that would be laughable if it wasn鈥檛 so insulting.
鈥淎 鈥榶es鈥 vote means 鈥 Directors could be fired during emergencies like snowstorms or public health crises,鈥 blares the tax-funded 鈥渋nformational鈥 piece: 鈥淎 鈥榥o鈥 vote 鈥 Maintains stable leadership for public safety, health, and other essential services.鈥 And so on.
So, yes, it is virtually undebatable that this was in fact a lobbying effort to successfully kill the ballot measure using public money, which is barred under state election laws. Thus the two misdemeanor election charges in the indictment against Page.
But felony theft punishable by up to 10 years in prison? That count of the indictment is based on (and only on) the reported cost of producing and mailing out the flyer. That鈥檚 it, there鈥檚 not more 鈥 there鈥檚 no allegation that anyone pocketed any money for themselves, which is how most reasonable people would define 鈥渢heft.鈥
The case began when a county resident complained about the flyer to the Missouri Secretary of State鈥檚 office, which referred it to Bailey鈥檚 office, which took it before a grand jury to determine what if any charges were appropriate. So far, so good.
But, again: major felony theft? Anyone at all familiar with our electoral and legal systems knows that鈥檚 not the kind of charge that usually (ever?) gets applied to these kinds of garden-variety election shenanigans. Indeed, as the Post-Dispatch鈥檚 Katie Kull reported Thursday, legal experts say they鈥檝e never seen Missouri law applied this way.
Lest anyone argue that it wasn鈥檛 Bailey who determined this ridiculous charge, but the grand jury, that鈥檚 not how the real world works. Unlike jury trials, grand jury investigations are under the control of prosecutors. While the old saying that a prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich isn鈥檛 literally true, it鈥檚 an old saying for a reason: Grand juries generally give prosecutors whatever charges they ask for.
And this doozy of a charge is in keeping with Bailey鈥檚 well-established pattern of abusing his authority in service to far-right politics. Previously, Bailey has used his tax-funded office to sue the state of New York for criminally convicting Donald Trump, to harass tech companies over AI results he deems insufficiently pro-Trump, and more 鈥 all of which was misuse of tax dollars for partisan political ends.
These and other examples of Bailey鈥檚 astounding abuse of his office makes it doubly appalling that after Page鈥檚 indictment, Bailey posted on social media: 鈥淧ublic money must never be used for political campaigning.鈥
Does he even hear himself?
The only saving grace to this uniquely unfit public official is that he鈥檚 bad at his job 鈥 at least to the extent that his job is to actually win cases and not just performatively announce them 鈥 as indicated by the fact that his antics get booted by judges all the time.
That will almost certainly be the fate of the felony charges against Page as well. In the meantime, the thousands of public dollars Page misused on his election flyer may well be dwarfed by whatever Bailey ends up spending in pursuit of this utterly politicized criminal charge.
