U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen Resigns Written by
DOYLE MURPHY
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eff Jensen, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, announced last Thursday he is resigning, effective December 30. A Trump nominee, Jensen will slide out ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, which may have led to his ouster anyway as the new administration makes new nominations. As the U.S. attorney in St. Louis, he’s taken an aggressive approach to prosecuting crimes in the city. Robberies and drug possession cas-
es involving guns that would have normally been run-of-the-mill prosecutions handled at the state level by the St. Louis circuit attorney were kicked up to the federal level by the hundreds under Jensen. Despite his zeal for sweeping up cases, Jensen managed to avoid the public controversies that often follow such turf battles and maintained a relatively low profile for the most part. He popped up in national press earlier this year when Attorney General William Barr, who is also resigning this month, tapped him to review the case against Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Flynn had pleaded guilty to a federal crime and admitted he’d lied to the FBI about discussions with a Russian ambassador. Under pressure from Trump, Barr ordered a probe of the voluntary plea, an unusual move for a Department of Justice that typically doesn’t try to undo its own work. Jensen, a former FBI agent, reviewed the case and concluded
U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen is heading to a private firm. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI that the DOJ should scrap the case. Flynn was never sentenced and has remained a Trump loyalist. He was rewarded last month with a pardon. In a news release on Thursday evening, Barr praised Jensen as a professional and dutiful servant. “Jeff Jensen brought unparalleled experience to the position of
SCHOOL CLOSINGS Continued from pg 9
Last week, Adams reminded school board members that they had been working through closure talks since late 2019 and that the process had included town halls and community outreach. But in a city that has spent months battling coronavirus outbreaks and economic shutdowns, the news appeared to catch many by surprise. In the days following the announcement, hundreds of people provided comments through an SLPS feedback form, and a December 8 board meeting ran more than three hours as board members discussed the public comments — while also voicing concerns that the vote was being rushed. St. Louis’ elected officials joined the fray as well, with the St. Louis Board of Aldermen voting 19-1 last week to pass a resolution (which is not binding) that opposed the closings. The resolution stated, in part, “The closing of public schools not only disrupts and often has a negative impact upon the education of the students attending those schools that are closed but also often devastates the surrounding community.” In light of the pushback, Adams came to see that more communication was needed before a final vote. Last week, he asked the board to “pause” while he set up additional meetings with school leaders and organizations that may have “concrete recommendations that provide services.” But Adams made clear that he is not looking for a critique of the process that had led to the recommendations.
Closed in 2007, the remains of a former classroom in Euclid School in Fountain Park offers a vision of what might be in store for the latest proposed school closures. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI “This is not about rhetoric, this is not about telling me what you think,” he continued. “This is about real resources with details that align itself to the eleven schools that we’re talking about.” Adams later said that he would not “walk away” from his recommendations to close the schools. In pointed remarks, he rejected critiques that the process was being rushed and that the SLPS administration had ignored neighborhood needs when assembling the list of proposed closures. He pointed to the bigger issue: St. Louis’ long decline in population, which hit a mid-nineteenthcentury peak above 700,000 and has since fallen to barely 300,000. The same trend, Adams continued, explains why the city’s Land Reutiliza-
tion Authority is trying to sell thousands of properties and vacant lots, and why the Board of Aldermen is set to reduce its members from 28 to 14 by 2022. The problem isn’t unique to SLPS, but a fact of life for a city trying to adjust to a smaller population. “What I’m asking the board to do is to pause, I’m not asking the board to stop,” Adams said. “I will not walk away from those recommendations, because kids’ lives are too important.” Along with Sumner, Adams’ recommendations would outright close Fanning Middle School, Cleveland Naval Jr. ROTC, Northwest High School, and the elementary schools Clay, Dunbar, Farragut, Ford, Hickey and Monroe. Carnahan High would be converted to a middle school. n
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United States Attorney as a former FBI Special Agent, Assistant United States Attorney, and private attorney,” Barr said. Since his first day in office, eff’s mission has always been the same: to save lives. The extraordinary number of federal prosecutions initiated during his tenure are a testament to that mission. But, Jeff’s efforts were not only limited to the Eastern District of Missouri. Whatever requested of him by the Department of Justice, no matter how big or small, Jeff was always willing to serve.” Jensen also backed a Barr-favored initiative called Operation Legend that targeted violent crime. St. Louis was one of multiple cities across the country that participated, and Barr visited in October to claim success. As the RFT’s Danny Wicentowski reported, the gaudy stats turned out to be wildly misleading. Despite claims that the operation cut homicides by 49 percent in the city, for example, St. Louis is on pace for its deadliest year in generations. While Jensen made violent crime his main focus, it was the prosecution of now-former St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger on corruption charges that leaves one of the most memorable marks of his tenure. Jensen recused himself from the case, but one of his biggest hires, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith, led the prosecution that sent Stenger and his co-conspirators in a pay-for-play bribery scheme to federal prison, upending county government. Under Jensen’s watch, federal prosecutors also indicted multiple police officers, including five St. Louis cops accused of beating and/ or covering up the beating of an undercover police officer embedded with police protesters. The cases didn’t e tend to officers accused by protesters of beating plenty of non-cops, but it did reveal in recovered text messages the eagerness of the indicted officers and others for clobbering demonstrators following the acquittal of excop Jason Stockley in 2017. Reuters reported that Jensen had sought a sweeping investigation of the St. Louis police department after the violent response to protests. The news agency cited an unnamed lawyer who claimed Jensen sought approval for the “pattern or practice” investigation from the Trump administration but was “shut down pretty hard.” Jensen later told the St. Louis PostDispatch the report was “simply not true.” After leaving the U.S. attorney’s office, ensen plans to join a private law firm. n
DECEMBER 23-29, 2020
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