IRONTON, Mo. — Jeff Burkett’s slow-motion resignation holds a lesson about the fragility, and occasional hypocrisy, of American democracy.
Until Wednesday morning, Burkett was the elected sheriff — at least in name — in Iron County. Voters put him in office after three elections in 2020 — a Republican primary, a special election after the primary was tossed in court due to alleged irregularities, and a November general election.
But since November 2023, after he was arrested and charged in neighboring Washington County with “criminal street gang activity,†Burkett had been sidelined. He was charged with other felonies related to the tracking and alleged attempted kidnapping of a child involved in a custody dispute.
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Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey tried to end Burkett’s reign as sheriff permanently by filing a legal action to remove him from office. The civil trial on that process was supposed to begin Wednesday.
But as the clock ticked down to 9 a.m., Burkett was nowhere to be seen. Neither was his attorney, Gabe Crocker. They were hoping for a last-minute reprieve, having argued to the Missouri Supreme Court that it would be impossible for Burkett to defend himself in the removal trial while protecting his rights in the criminal case.
No reprieve came. Crocker and Burkett eventually walked into the historic Iron County Courthouse on Wednesday morning and went into a private room to negotiate Burkett’s resignation.
“I can’t expose him to the threat of trying to defend himself in a civil matter while also trying to protect him in a criminal matter,†Crocker said after the resignation and cancelation of the removal trial. “It’s an impossibility.â€
It’s an argument Bailey knows well. It’s nearly identical to one he is making in a higher-profile case. Last month, Bailey was one of 24 Republican attorneys general to file in the U.S. Supreme Court case on whether former President Donald Trump can be disqualified from this year’s election because a Colorado court determined he participated in an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump, like Burkett, has been charged in a criminal case but has not been convicted. The cases in Colorado, Maine and elsewhere that are seeking to remove him from the ballot “significantly complicate criminal prosecutions,†Bailey and the other attorneys general wrote.
Burkett may ultimately be convicted, just as Trump may end up being found guilty of one or more of the 91 charges he is facing.
But while Bailey tried using a civil procedure in Missouri to remove a local elected official and undo the voters’ will, despite no criminal convictions, he is arguing in federal court that to do the same thing against Trump would be an attack on democracy.
“Many Americans will become convinced that a few partisan actors have contrived to take a political decision out of ordinary voters’ hands,†the brief in the Trump case reads. “The Court should act now to stop all these ‘strange, far-reaching, and injurious results’ from spinning out of control.â€
The 14th Amendment arguments in Trump’s federal case are different than the issues related to a removal procedure in Missouri, but the underlying theme is the same. “The voters first will decide whether former President Trump is legally qualified to be reelected as President,†Bailey and his colleagues wrote in the Trump case.
In November, it’s likely that the majority of Iron County voters will cast their votes for Trump — nearly 80% of them did in 2020. But those same voters won’t have a say on Burkett because Bailey made sure the former sheriff won’t be on the ballot.
In one case, Bailey wants “ordinary voters†to have their say. In another, he doesn’t.
I wonder what 23 other Republican attorneys general think about that.