OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A sheriff in southeast Oklahoma who was among several county officials caught on tape discussing killing journalists and lynching Black people won’t face criminal charges or be removed from office, the state’s top prosecutor said Friday.

In a letter to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, Attorney General Gentner Drummond said his office and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation had completed their investigation and found no legal grounds to dismiss McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy.

“There are countless examples of incidents from across the country where public officials make inflammatory comments that spark severe condemnation,” Drummond wrote. “Oftentimes the offending official resigns in disgrace. Sometimes the outrage fades and the matter is forgotten.

He added: “Regardless, there is no provision of law in Oklahoma to throw elected officials out of office merely for saying something offensive.”

The comments in question:

Earlier that day, Willingham's son, Christopher Lee Willingham, who is also a reporter at the newspaper, had filed a lawsuit against Clardy, Manning and the commissioners in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma seeking unspecified damages. He claimed they were punishing him for his hard-hitting reporting by spreading "slander" about him.

When Willingham retrieved the device, he discovered that the conversation began with a grisly conversation about a fire victim being compared to "barbecue" before the group turned to talking about his son.

"My papaw would have whipped his ass, would have wiped him and used him for toilet paper," Manning said of the younger Willingham, according to the newspaper. "If my daddy hadn't been run over by a vehicle, he would have been down there."

Jennings then piped in, saying "I know where two big, deep holes are here if you ever need them."

"I've got an excavator," Clardy chimed in, according to the newspaper.

Jennings, according to the newspaper, then said he knew "two or three hit men" who belong to the Louisiana mafia.

No you were talking about avoiding the traps. If the same cop can pull you over for impeding traffic, "just slow down" doesn't avoid the trap.