Oregon’s state attorney has dismissed a complaint against prosecutor Mike Schmidt

It may be little consolation to Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, but the Oregon State Bar Board dismissed a pre-election complaint that former longtime Multnomah County District Attorney Chuck French filed against Schmidt in April.

In his complaint, French alleged that Schmidt misrepresented the facts in the cases of two convicted murderers, about which he had asked then-Gov. Kate Brown pardon.

Schmidt told the bar that he relies on his staff to provide relevant information to the governor. The complaint documented a fundamental divide between Schmidt, who won re-election in 2020 on a reform platform, and more conservative prosecutors like French, who criticized Schmidt’s approach as soft on crime.

In the May primary, voters supported the latter view, electing one of Schmidt’s senior prosecutors, Nathan Vasquez, to replace him by 7 percentage points.

While voters supported Vasquez, the bar’s assistant general counsel, Lynn Davis, told French in an Oct. 18 letter that the bar was rejecting his complaint.

“Your concerns do not support a reasonable belief that Mr. Schmidt engaged in attorney misconduct,” Davis wrote. “There is insufficient evidence that Mr. Schmidt had reason to believe that he could not rely on the performance of his staff.”