PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota House committee recommended on Monday that the state’s attorney general face no impeachment charges for his actions surrounding a 2020 fatal car crash.
Gov. Kristi Noem had pushed for Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, a fellow Republican, to be removed from office. But a Republican-controlled House committee issued a report Monday and found his actions did not merit impeachment. Individual House lawmakers may still bring impeachment charges against Ravnsborg, but the committee’s decision was a major setback for those trying to remove him from office.
Ravnsborg struck and killed a man walking near a rural highway in September of 2020. The attorney general has cast it as a tragic accident and pleaded no contest last year to a pair of traffic misdemeanors in the crash.
Ravnsborg initially reported the crash as a collision with an animal and has said he did not realize he struck a man until he returned to the scene the next day and discovered his body. Criminal investigators doubted that account, but prosecutors said they were unable to prove that Ravnsborg realized he killed a man the night of the crash.
By Stephen Groves, The Associated Press
