ST. LOUIS (KMOX) — A lawsuit filed by a private citizen opposed to taxpayers paying for St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner's outside lawyers defending her in the perjury probe is heating up.
Kim Gardner has been subpoenaed to testify, but she has filed a motion to try to block that. The case was set for a hearing Friday morning, but Gardner has asked for a delay.
The attorney who filed the suit, Dan Emerson, will ask the judge to continue the freeze on Gardner's ability to spend taxpayer money on outside lawyers for another 15 days.
"They're billing for travel time and when they're here, they're staying at hotels and things of that nature, which is expenses in addition to one of them charging $540 an hour," Emerson told KMOX's Kevin Killeen. "It's illegal for any city official with the authority to contract to have a blank check for vendors if there's not money in city coffers to satisfy that."
The case is now set for a hearing on June 12.
Gardner's office has been under investigation by a special grand jury for several months; a member of her team during last year's Eric Greitens case is accused of lying under oath during a deposition.