Missouri governor inspired tiffs before affair was public

Missouri Republican Gov. Eric Greitens courted controversy and touched off political disputes even before acknowledging an extramarital affair and facing bombshell allegations that he blackmailed the woman involved.

Greitens has been a rising star in the national Republican Party and a welcome partner for state GOP lawmakers, whose favored policies had faced a Democratic governor’s veto pen until Greitens’ election in 2016. He also seemed to have his sights set on even higher office, having secured the web address Eric Greitens for President. com years before running for governor.

But he also made missteps as a first-time candidate and then as a freshman governor, raising questions in particular about secrecy.

Greitens acknowledged Wednesday that he had an extramarital affair in 2015, but he denies the blackmail allegations and is telling supporters that a St. Louis prosecutor’s investigation will clear him.

A look at some of the notable hiccups during Greitens’ first campaign and first year in office:

RÉSUMÉ QUESTIONS

While running for governor, Greitens repeatedly touted his volunteer work with refugees in the Balkans in 1994, saying he helped children in Bosnia, where thousands died amid ethnic strife following the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. He later acknowledged that most of the work was in safer, neighboring Croatia. Asked about the word choice, Greitens told The Associated Press that people recognized what happened in Bosnia and understood working with Bosnian refugees. But the choice also may have had a political advantage: Missouri has a large population of Bosnian refugees.

CHARITY IN SPOTLIGHT

Greitens’ campaign for governor had access to the donor list for The Mission Continues, a veterans’ charity he founded, and raised $2 million from individuals and entities that had given the charity significant contributions. Democrats said it was the kind of insider politics that Greitens decried in his campaign, and the chairman of the state party filed an ethics complaint contending he should have disclosed the list as an in-kind contribution. Greitens initially denied using the charity’s list for fundraising, then belatedly reported it as an in-kind contribution. He paid a $100 fine.

Federal law prohibits charities such as The Mission Continues from intervening in political campaigns on behalf of candidates. The IRS has said charities cannot give their donor lists away but can rent them at fair market value if they’re available to all candidates.

DARK MONEY HELP

Within weeks of Greitens taking office, his campaign treasurer founded a nonprofit group to promote the new governor’s agenda. The group can take an unlimited amount of money from donors and it does not have to reveal who is contributing.

Separately, Greitens received a contribution of nearly $2 million for his campaign from a super PAC with only a single, mystery group as a donor.