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Jason Ravnsborg (archive photo)
Photo:
Dirk Lammers / AP
Jason Ravnsborg may not have been too serious about the truth for a man who should stand for law-abidingness and honesty.
The Republican is attorney general in the US state of South Dakota - the question is how much longer.
Because there is impeachment proceedings against Ravnsborg because he is said to have proven himself unworthy of his position.
He is said to have lied about the course of a fatal traffic accident in which he was involved.
Governor Kristi Noem, also a Republican, has since asked Ravensborg to resign.
Rep. Will Mortenson, also a Republican, said he had initiated impeachment proceedings.
Mortenson said he didn't think Ravnsborg belong in jail.
But he also no longer belongs in the office of Minister of Justice.
On September 12th, Ravnsborg was on his way back from a party fundraiser when he ran over a man.
Contrary to what he had initially stated, the Justice Minister had at least gone a little off the road.
"His face was in your windshield, Jason"
The politician said he did not notice that he had met a person and assumed that it was a deer.
Ravnsborg was not drunk at the time of the accident.
He claims to have noticed the body the next day when he searched the scene of the accident in daylight.
Several videos could now be the undoing of Ravnsborg.
Noem had the recordings published.
They show police interrogations of Ravnsborg.
What is said there raises massive doubts about the portrayal of the politician.
On the one hand, the investigators hold against him that the victim's glasses ended up in Ravnsborg's car.
"His face was in your windshield, Jason, think about it," says one of the cops.
Given this, it is difficult to imagine that Ravnsborg would not have noticed that he had run over a person and not an animal.
It is also spicy that - contrary to what he initially stated - he was apparently at least temporarily distracted at the wheel.
Based on the analysis of his telephone data, the police reconstructed that Ravnsborg, among other things, checked e-mails in the minutes before his emergency call and opened an article on the right-hand website "Just the News" in which it was allegedly questionable connections of US President Joe Biden went to china.
Only on the reproach of the investigators did Ravnsborg admit to have used his phone while driving.
According to the local newspaper "Sioux Falls Argus Leader", however, the phone was blocked about 70 seconds before the accident.
Ravnsborg told the police officers that he did not look at his phone at the time of the accident - and still did not notice the victim.
"I've never seen him."
Ravnsborg refuses to resign
Immediately before the accident, he turned off the car radio and checked the speedometer.
According to investigators, he was traveling at around 108 kilometers per hour, slightly faster than allowed on the section.
The investigators also wonder how it can be that Ravnsborg does not want to have seen the victim with the flashlight of his cell phone after getting out of the car - although the 55-year-old who was run over was not far from the roadside and was himself with a flashlight, which was still on the road glowed.
Ravnsborg has so far refused to resign.
He is charged with several offenses, including using his cell phone while driving.
A court date has not yet been set.
A Ravnsborg spokesman said the politician has always advocated fair trials and hopes that he will now be allowed to do so.
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