Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens Indicted On Felony Invasion Of Privacy Charge
Eric Greitens Image by Getty
By Aiden Pink February 22, 2018
This is a developing story.
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens was indicted Thursday afternoon on charges of felony invasion of privacy.
Greitens was being investigated after a woman with whom he had an affair in 2015 accused him of blackmailing her by taking photos of her while she was naked and bound with tape.
The husband of the woman, who has not been named by the media, released an audio recording last month of her admitting to the affair and accusing Greitens of the blackmail to prevent her from sharing her story. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner launched an investigation shortly thereafter.
“As I have stated before, it is essential for residents of the City of St. Louis and our state to have confidence in their leaders,” Gardner said in a statement. “They must know that the Office of the Circuit Attorney will hold public officials accountable in the same manner as any other resident of our city. Both parties and the people of St. Louis deserve a thorough investigation of these allegations.”
Greitens, a Republican who was elected in November 2016 in part by running on a family-values platform, admitted to the affair but denied the blackmail allegations. A number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers had called on him to resign, but Greitens said last month that he would not do so.
Greitens, the nation’s only Jewish governor, was seen as a rising star in Republican circles before the blackmail accusations. He is a former Navy SEAL and recipient of the Bronze Star.
Read more: https://forward-hcl50.orc.scoolaid.net/fast-forward/392601/missouri-gov-eric-greitens-says-he-wont-resign-amid-blackmail-allegations/
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
