A disgraced former St. Louis circuit attorney bankrolled by billionaire liberal George Soros now admits pilfering over $5,000 in public money to save her personal law license.

But the agreement doesn’t signal the end to investigations of forced-out prosecutor Kimberly M. Gardner over the far-left lawyer’s discredited time in office.

Multiple media outlets are reporting Gardner, who resigned under pressure 18 months ago, reached a diversion agreement with the federal government to save her from prosecution, at least temporarily.

Gardner, 49, admits she illegally ordered employees to reimburse her from city funds for costs associated with an ethics investigation of her, in which the Missouri Supreme Court ultimately found she violated ethical rules in a high-profile political case, said local First Alert 4 News.

“The agreement follows a thorough investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI, during which investigators interviewed all pertinent witnesses and reviewed all available evidence and financial records,” said U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming, according to local KTTN.

The latest agreement marks the second admission by Gardner of violating rules of standards and ethics in relation to her duties as St. Louis circuit city attorney.

In a previous case, Gardner admitted to the Supreme Court she “violated professional misconduct rules” during her investigation of former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, according to the Missouri Independent.

In a 40-page stipulation to the facts, Gardner admitted to the court in the Greitens case that she failed to collect, produce and log documents properly for the defense as required by law.

When Gardner resigned from office as St. Louis’ top prosecutor in May 2023, she was under intense pressure by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and other state leaders for improprieties in her office, failure to prosecute serious criminal cases, and engaging in what observers called political prosecutions of Greitens and others.

Momentum for her resignation – announced during ouster proceedings against her – gained speed when Missouri lawmakers introduced legislation that would appoint a special prosecutor to pursue violent crime cases that Gardner’s office wouldn’t prosecute, said the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

That momentum took on a force of its own when a driver who was supposed to be on house arrest, and had violated his bond more than 90 times without revocation, plowed into a teen girl in St. Louis who was in the city for a volleyball tournament. The girl ended up losing her legs as a result.

Gardner denied responsibility for the accident and said critics “twist the facts to take advantage of this situation for their own selfish motives.”

Instead of keeping criminals in jail, critics noted at the time, her office, by her own admission, concentrated on “diversion programs, attention to police misconduct and work to overturn wrongful convictions,” said the St Louis Post Dispatch.

Under Gardner, a Missouri attorney general report found there had been 25,000 cases dismissed, 2,735 cases dismissed by judges for failure to prosecute and $351,500 in taxpayer money paid to an unlicensed attorney providing legal advice, said local KSKD News 5 NBC.

Gardner was swept into office in 2016 after she and more than 70 other candidates benefited from a $40 million spending spree by far-left financier Soros to elect ultra-liberal prosecutors who would, critics argue, go on to turn prosecutors’ offices into social justice temples.

To avoid prosecution herself, under her new diversion agreement Gardner must avoid further violation of the law, report to a pretrial services officer and repay the Circuit Attorney’s Office over 18 months, reports KTTN.

But avoiding further legal woes might be a sticky matter for the former top circuit attorney.

In May, Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick, who is auditing the St. Louis City Attorney’s Office in the wake of her departure, issued a public plea for information on the whereabouts of Gardner after she dodged subpoenas requiring her to cooperate with the audit.

“Fitzpatrick said while his office continues to make every effort to obtain information from Gardner, he encourages anyone who may have knowledge of her whereabouts to contact the State Auditor’s Whistleblower Hotline,” said a statement by the Office of the Missouri State Auditor.

Fitzpatrick warned the audit had revealed “expenditures that appear inappropriate.”

“We want to give her the opportunity to explain those,” said Fitzpatrick.

Gardner subsequently met with the auditor. The audit is expected to be published before the end of the year.

Fitzpatrick promised the report “will provide some much-needed answers for lingering questions. We can confirm the auditor’s office has cooperated with federal law enforcement and the U.S. attorney’s office and will continue to do so to ensure accountability for the people of the city of St. Louis,” reported local NPR.