Missouri governor won’t quit despite sex scandal
He admits affair buts denies allegations of blackmail or violence.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — In his first interview since acknowledging an extramarital affair, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens said Saturday that there was “no blackmail” and “no threat of violence” by him in what he described as a months-long “consensual relationship” with his former hairdresser.
Greitens said he has no plans to resign as a result of the affair, despite calls to step aside from several Republican and Democratic state lawmakers.
“I’m staying. I’m staying,” the Republican said for emphasis, adding about his relationship with his wife, staff and supporters: “We’re strong.”
Greitens, 43, has remained out of the public eye since shortly after delivering his State of the State address on Jan. 10. Later that night, St. Louis television station KMOV reported that Greitens had an extramarital affair in 2015 as he was preparing to run for governor.
The report included an audio recording of a conversation between a woman and her then-husband — recorded secretly by the husband — in which the woman said Greitens had bound her hands and blindfolded her, taken a photo of her partially nude and warned her to remain silent during an encounter in his St. Louis home.
Greitens did not directly say, “Yes,” or “No,” when asked in an interview with the Associated Press on Saturday whether he had bound and blindfolded and taken a photo of the woman. But he firmly denied that he had attempted to coerce the woman or that he or anyone associated with him had paid her to be silent.
“This was a consensual relationship,” Greitens said. “There was no blackmail, there was no violence, there was no threat of violence, there was no threat of blackmail, [and] there was no threat of using a photograph for blackmail. All of those things are false.”
He added: “The mistake that I made was that I was engaged in a consensual relationship with a woman who was not my wife. That is a mistake for which I am very sorry.”
The AP has not identified the woman because she has not agreed to an interview.
The governor said he has had no other romantic or sexual relationships with anyone else while he’s been married.
“I made a mistake with one woman,” he said.
A former Navy SEAL officer, Rhodes scholar, author and founder of a veterans’ charity, Greitens took his first step into politics by opening an exploratory committee for governor in February 2015. The extramarital relationship began roughly a month later and ended that fall, Greitens said. He officially announced he was running for governor in September 2015.
He told the AP he discussed and resolved the affair with his wife that same year.
Greitens emerged the winner in a crowded and expensive GOP primary before defeating the state’s attorney general, Democrat Chris Koster, in November 2016 to give Republicans control of the governor’s mansion for the first time in eight years.
After news of the affair broke this month, an attorney for the ex-husband said his client told him that Greitens had slapped the woman, and St. Louis Circuit Atty. Kim Gardner said she was opening a criminal investigation into the various claims about Greitens’ actions.
Asked Saturday whether he had ever slapped the woman, Greitens responded: “Absolutely not.”
He said that he hasn’t been contacted by the circuit attorney’s office and that neither he nor his attorneys has been contacted by the FBI “on this or any other matter.”
“As far as my conduct, there is nothing to investigate,” Greitens said.
On Friday, CNN cited sources while reporting that the FBI had recently opened an inquiry into Greitens’ case. CNN reported that Eli Karabell — who said he had volunteered to help with Greitens’ transition in December 2016 — approached the news organization to say he had been interviewed by the FBI last November, though he did not offer specifics about what he told agents.
Greitens told the AP he doesn’t know Karabell.
Amid the controversy, Greitens postponed a statewide promotional tour for what he had billed in his State of the State address as “the boldest state tax reform in America.”
Instead, Greitens said he has called almost every state lawmaker and also posted a Facebook apology. He said the “love and support has been tremendous from people all over the state.”