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 voted on party lines to issue a report that 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.
The two Democrats on the nine-member committee issued a minority report that recommended he be impeached.
The committee’s announcement prompted tears from the widow of the pedestrian Ravnsborg struck and killed near a rural highway in September 2020. As the committee met behind closed doors for over four hours Friday, Jennifer Boever, the widow of Joseph Boever, watched lawmakers through a window into the conference room, expressing anger at times at lawmakers’ demeanor as they appeared to discuss the report.
