Governor vows not to quit
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Drawing on his Navy SEAL training, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens asserted Thursday that he will not quit or back down despite a criminal charge and potential impeachment proceedings involving various allegations of misconduct against him.
Greitens’ defiant comments came as Missouri lawmakers and the governor’s legal team escalated their battle in advance of a special legislative session starting Friday focused on potentially disciplining the governor.
A House panel sued two Greitens’ political committees Thursday to try to enforce subpoenas seeking records as part of an investigation into whether Greitens tried “to circumvent Missouri’s campaign finance disclosure laws.”
The governor’s campaign attorney countered later in the day by claiming that a former political aide had stolen a charity donor list — which Greitens is charged with misusing for his 2016 campaign — and shared it with a political group opposing Greitens’ candidacy.
Greitens hosted a relatively rare public event Thursday in Jefferson City to announce funding for biodiesel facilities. At the end of a celebratory speech, Greitens shifted topics to the challenges he’s facing and recounted how he once felt like quitting during a grueling Navy SEAL training session in which his team of seven men had carry a heavy log over a beach. Greitens said he kept going for the good of the team.
The Republican governor then declared: “No matter what they throw at me, no matter how painful they try to make it, no matter how much suffering they want to put me and my family through and my team through ... we are going to step forward day after day after day, and we are going to continue in our mission to fight for the people of Missouri.”
Prosecutors in St. Louis dropped a felony invasion-of-privacy charge against Greitens earlier this week that accused him of taking a nonconsensual photo of an almost entirely naked woman with whom he acknowledged having an affair in 2015. Prosecutors have said the charge could be refiled.
Greitens also faces another felony charge alleging he tampered with computer data by disclosing the donor list of The Mission Continues to his political fundraiser in 2015 without the permission of the St. Louis-based charity he founded.
On Friday, the Missouri Legislature is to convene a monthlong special session devoted solely to investigating allegations against Greitens, with the possibility of impeaching him in an attempt to remove him from office.
Greitens declined to answer a question Thursday from The Associated Press about whether he would testify before the House investigatory committee.
The House investigatory committee went to Cole County Circuit Court asking it to enforce subpoenas against Greitens’ campaign committee and an organization called A New Missouri that conceals the identity of donations it receives to promote Greitens’ agenda
Attorney Catherine Hanaway, who represents both committees, has said she believes the subpoena to A New Missouri is “beyond the scope of the investigation” by the House.
Greitens’ campaign committee has turned over thousands of documents.