ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis judge issued a 15-day temporary restraining order Monday banning the city from spending any tax dollars on private law firms hired by Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner to defend herself and her office.
This has been a big point of contention for some people who are curious who is going to pay for out-of-town, high-dollar firms.
According to a press release from March, Gardner has hired two separate law firms to represent her in the matter and a third to represent her office in the ongoing perjury investigation into a former FBI agent hired by her office.
Last month, the 5 On Your Side I-Team obtained a letter dated April 10 that St. Louis City Counselor Julian Bush sent to 16th Ward Alderman Tom Oldenburg.
In it, Bush said it does not appear that Gardner has any valid contracts with those firms or if they've been filed with the register's office as required by state law, bringing into question how much the firms were being paid.
"I have inquired of the register whether such contracts have been filed with her, and she says that they have not. Therefore I infer that such contracts have no been executed. Perforce the City cannot be obligated to pay contracts that do not exist," Bush wrote in the April 10 letter.
The firms were hired as she fights that search warrant for her e-mail server from the special prosecutor’s perjury investigation.
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