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ST. LOUIS — Sheriff Alfred Montgomery says Missouri’s attorney general is trying to undo his election with a political stunt.

In a rebuttal to the lawsuit filed last month to remove him from office, Montgomery said Attorney General Andrew Bailey is trying to overturn the will of city voters with claims that lack legal foundation and appear to be “objectively false.”

“As with any elected officeholder, voters have the right to be satisfied or dissatisfied,” the filing reads, “but their remedy is at the polling place at the next free and fair election, not in a court proceeding that amounts to no more than a political stunt.”

Bailey, a Republican, filed suit last month seeking to oust Montgomery for a litany of alleged offenses: hiring a family member, ordering an illegal arrest, making a deputy pick up his children from school, shirking a key duty of his office, and reckless, unlawful spending.

But in his filing late Monday, Montgomery’s attorneys denied it all, and asked the judge to throw out the case.

“An extraordinary writ of quo warranto does not apply in this matter and should not serve to oust a democratically elected sheriff,” the filing says.

The attorneys, including noted criminal defense attorney Justin Gelfand, also said an allegation concerning the handcuffing of the city jail chief in February was a covert attempt to try a case the FBI is investigating. The court, they said, should pause consideration until the FBI probe concludes.

A spokesperson for the Attorney General did not immediately have a comment Tuesday afternoon.

The filing marks the fullest formal defense yet of Montgomery’s short tenure as he fights for his political life.

Within weeks of taking office in January, he was accused of illegally seizing a former deputy’s gun, and arresting the jail chief.

Then he drew criticism from city officials alarmed by decisions to spend more than $100,000 on new badges, uniforms, golf carts and a take-home SUV even after benefit payouts to employees he fired helped plunge the office’s budget into the red.

And in late May, he again angered officials with refusals to transport city jail detainees to medical appointments, which he said isn’t his responsibility, even though past sheriffs handled it for decades

Bailey sued on June 25 and asked a judge to force Montgomery to immediately surrender his department-issue badge, weapon and vehicle, and forbid him from exercising any authority as an elected official, pending further proceedings.

“Montgomery has abused his authority and resources repeatedly for his own personal benefit,” Bailey said at a downtown ӣ����Ƶ news conference announcing the suit. “This is about restoring the rule of law.”

But at the first hearing in the case on July 9, Montgomery’s attorneys successfully argued against the sheriff’s immediate removal. Judge Steven Ohmer noted that in other cases where such action had been taken, the officials had been charged with crimes.

David Mason, another attorney for Montgomery, presented Ohmer with birth certificates for Montgomery and the deputy, Malik Taylor, who Bailey says is the half-brother Montgomery illegally hired.

The space for a father’s name on Taylor’s certificate was blank. Mason argued that Bailey had no other evidence to connect the men, and had violated court ethics rules in making the allegation.

Ohmer made no ruling, and set a trial for November.

But in their filing Monday, Montgomery’s attorneys renewed their arguments and accusations of unethical behavior regarding the nepotism charge.

“There is no evidence and there will be no evidence to support this allegation,” they wrote.

They also described his spending as legitimate policy choices to improve the sheriff’s department morale and image.

They wrote that Barbara Chavers, the deputy caught on video picking up Montgomery’s children from school in a sheriff’s department car, is an old friend of Montgomery’s and helped him as a favor when she was off duty. The department vehicle, they said, has not been used for weeks.

They wrote that the job of transporting city jail detainees to hospitals and medical appointments falls squarely on the city corrections division, which runs the jail. While they conceded that previous sheriffs did the job for decades before Montgomery took office, they said that was merely a “courtesy to the City.”

They also pushed back on the allegations that he ordered an illegal disarming of former Deputy Darryl Wilson at a gas station in January, and an illegal handcuffing of jail chief Tammy Ross in February.

Wilson, they wrote, voluntarily handed over his gun. And Ross, they said, was “free to go at all times.”

The next hearing in the case is set for Aug. 29.