Missouri governor resigns amid scandals

JEFFERSON CITY, MO.— Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, a sometimes brash political outsider whose unconventional resume as a Rhodes scholar and Navy SEAL officer made him a rising star in the Republican Party, resigned Tuesday amid a widening probe that arose from an affair with his former hairdresser.

The 44-year-old governor spent nearly six months fighting to stay in office after the affair became public in January in a TV news report.

The probes into his conduct by prosecutors and lawmakers began with allegations stemming from the affair and expanded to include questions about whether he violated campaignfinance laws.

Greitens said his resignation would take effect Friday.

“This ordeal has been designed to cause an incredible amount of strain on my family — millions of dollars of mounting legal bills, endless personal attacks designed to cause maximum damage to family and friends,” he said, adding he could not “allow those forces to continue to cause pain and difficulty to the people that I love.”

Lawmakers pressuring Greitens to step down included many Republicans, who feared that his troubles could jeopardize the GOP’s chances of defeating incumbent Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill in a race considered essential to the party’s hopes of keeping control of the Senate.