Ex-Male Stripper To Eric Greitens: I Also Did Crime You’re Accused Of. Pardon Me.

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens addresses the crowd at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery, where he and Vice President Mike Pence were on hand to help clean it up after anti-Semitic vandalism. Image by Michael Thomas/Getty Images

By Ari Feldman February 27, 2018

Eric Greitens is the embattled governor of Missouri, fighting charges that he surreptitiously recorded a woman he was having an affair with without her consent. Now an ex-male stripper accused of the same crime is requesting a pardon from Greitens, the Washington Post reported.

The ex-male stripper is Paul Henfried, who was convicted nearly two decades ago for making secret film recordings of his clients. Henfried, known at the time by his stage name Geno, is now a lawyer in California.

Henfried’s attorney said that they are asking for a pardon because Greitens is using a similar argument to their own in fighting the felony charges. Greitens was indicted last week for taking a photo of a woman in a sexually explicit position without her consent.

The governor has argued that that the woman had no expectation of privacy when he took the photo. Henfried’s lawyer has argued that the law against nonconsensual recordings is aimed at “peeping toms,” not people who have a consensual relationship prior to the recording.

“As I have said before, I made a personal mistake before I was Governor,” Greitens said in a statement released on Facebook last week. “I did not commit a crime.”

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

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