South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) on Tuesday called on state Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (R) to resign after prosecutors charged the official with traffic misdemeanors after fatally hitting a pedestrian with his vehicle.
“Now that the investigation has closed and charges have been filed, I believe the Attorney General should resign,” Noem tweeted. “I have reviewed the material we are releasing, starting today, and I encourage others to review it as well.”
The governor isn’t the only South Dakota GOP leader pressuring Ravnsborg to quit: State House Majority Whip Tim Goodwin (R) asserted in a newsletter over the weekend that the attorney general “needs to do the honorable thing and resign his post,” per the Argus Leader.
“He needs to do it immediately so we as a state can move forward,” Goodwin wrote.
The letter also confirmed that South Dakota lawmakers are considering impeachment if Ravnsborg does not resign.
TPM has reached out to Ravnsborg’s office and will update upon receiving a response.
The embattled attorney general, who refused to step down during the investigation, has signaled that he does not intend to leave office.
“The investigators have presented their findings and recommended misdemeanor infractions in a wholistic process they described as going ‘above and beyond,’ and we look forward to the continued due process of law,” Mike Deaver, Ravnsborg’s spokesperson, said in a statement to multiple outlets.
The attorney general was charged with three misdemeanors last week after a lengthy investigation into the collision in September. Ravnsborg hit 55-year-old Joe Boever as the pedestrian was walking on the highway shoulder at night but has claimed he did not know he had hit a person until the morning afterward. Prosecutors said the attorney general was “distracted.”
The official has been charged with careless driving, driving outside his lane and using a mobile device while operating a motor vehicle.
