St. Louis prosecutor says warrant seeks to intimidate her

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The St. Louis prosecutor's ongoing feud with others in the city's legal establishment escalated Wednesday when she accused a judge, the police and a special prosecutor of trying to intimidate and embarrass her.

The latest dust-up between Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is over a warrant to search her office's electronic records related to a perjury investigation of William Tisaby. Gardner hired the former FBI agent last year to investigate then-Gov. Eric Greitens.

Circuit Judge Michael Mullen on Tuesday ordered Gardner to comply with the search warrant. She immediately appealed, but before a state appeals court could rule, police and an attorney for the special prosecutor appointed to oversee the Tisaby case went to her office and removed an email server.

The appeals court later Tuesday issued a preliminary order halting execution of the search warrant. The email server was returned about an hour after it was taken.

Gardner told The Associated Press by phone that the whole process was a personal attack on her.

"It's to embarrass, it's to harass," Gardner said. "That's all this is about. Nothing else. It's not about the law."

But, she added: "I will not be bullied. I will not be intimidated. I'm not scared to do what's right."

Email and phone messages on Wednesday seeking comment from Special Prosecutor Gerard Carmody and police were not immediately returned. Mullen, through a court spokesman, declined comment.

Gardner, who was elected in 2016, has long had a testy relationship with the police department.

In January 2018, she took the unusual step of hiring Tisaby to investigate allegations that Greitens took an unauthorized partially nude photo of a woman with whom he had an affair in 2015, a year...