Eric and Sheena Greitens
Investigators visited Missouri's capital yesterday, posing questions to several lawmakers about Gov. Eric Greitens and his admitted extramarital affair. One lawmaker in Jefferson City said he was asked about issues that go beyond Greitens' affair with his former hair stylist.Greitens, a one-time Navy SEAL who was seen as presidential timber before the affair went public, might be under increasing pressure as he tries to save his current job. From a report at stltoday.com:
Investigators working for the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office were in Jefferson City on Wednesday, three state lawmakers said.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner, a Democrat, announced last month that her office would conduct a criminal investigation into claims Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, took a compromising photograph of his lover and threatened to release it if she spoke about the affair.
Greitens lived in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis at the time of his 2015 extramarital affair. He has acknowledged the affair but has denied allegations of possible blackmail.
The reason for the investigators’ visit was unclear.
Greitens has been acting in typical right-wing fashion, proposing a budget that would slash higher-education funding, while enhancing spending on road projects. But the visit from criminal investigators might bring the affair back into the public eye:
Rep. Nate Walker, R-Kirksville, told the Post-Dispatch he had spoken with investigators Jack Foley and William Tisaby mid-afternoon Wednesday. Walker was an early backer of Greitens during the 2016 campaign but was among a handful of House Republicans who called for Greitens’ resignation last month.
“Yes, I did meet with them,” he said of the investigators.
Walker would not say what types of questions the investigators asked, but signaled the issues they were interested in went beyond revelations surrounding the extramarital affair.“They’re looking into some things in the governor’s office,” he said. “They asked a lot of questions. … Good investigators investigate everything.”
Walker was not the only lawmaker facing queries about the governor:
Sens. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, and Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, also said investigators from the prosecutor’s office were in the Capitol on Wednesday.
“Two came to my office,” Chappelle-Nadal said from the Senate floor, adding that Foley was one of them.
“There are two that are in the building,” Schaaf added.
Schaaf, a frequent critic of Greitens, said he wanted to shed light on the ongoing investigation.“If they are in the building talking to people … I thought I should get that into the public sphere,” Schaaf said.
How ugly could this get for the governor with the almost super-human bio? The answer is "very." How far and fast could he fall? The answer, again, could be "very":
Greitens has rejected the calls for his resignation that followed his public acknowledgment of the affair. The allegations of blackmail were made public by the ex-husband of the woman who had a relationship with Greitens.
The ex-husband released audio last month that he described as a secret recording he made of his then-wife telling him about the non-consensual photo and the threat.
Greitens has denied any criminal wrongdoing. But he has declined multiple times to say whether he took a photograph. At a news conference last week, Greitens said he wanted to move past the controversy.“We’re ready to move forward,” he said.
Greitens might want to "move forward." But it appears the circuit attorney has other ideas.
