MO Gov. Faces Graphic Charges from Committee Investigating Sexual Misconduct
Calls for the resignation of Missouri’s governor are growing much louder in the wake of damning testimony by one witness before a state legislative committee.
As the Daily Caller reported, an unidentified woman addressed members of the House committee conducting an ongoing investigation into Republican Gov. Eric Greitens. Details of her allegations were made public in a report released Wednesday.
Her testimony under oath included graphic depictions of sexual assault, including violent and non-consensual sex and an attempt afterward to blackmail her into silence about it.
In the first of two encounters she described in her testimony, the witness said she was left “uncontrollably crying” after Greitens forced her face to come in close proximity to his exposed penis.
The woman testified that she “didn’t feel necessarily able to leave without performing oral sex” on him, citing safety concerns.
She described another incident during which Greitens allegedly asked her an inappropriate sexual question and reacted violently when she told him that she had been with men other than her husband.
The governor “slapped me across my face, just like hard,” the woman said.
She claimed Greitens took a compromising photo depicting her bound and wearing a blindfold, threatening to release the image publicly if she said anything about the incident, according to CNN.
“You’re not going to mention my name,” he said, according to the witness testimony. “Don’t even mention my name to anybody at all, because if you do, I’m going to take these pictures, and I’m going to put them everywhere I can. They are going to be everywhere.”
Greitens has vehemently denied any blackmail and called the recent House report evidence of a “political witch hunt.”
Nevertheless, many state and national leaders on both sides of the aisle say the scandal has made it impossible for him to effectively lead.
BREAKING: Missouri Republican Attorney General and US Senate candidate Josh Hawley calls on Gov. Eric Greitens to resign.
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 12, 2018
In addition to facing charges of felony privacy invasion, Greitens is facing a separate investigation into allegations that as a candidate for governor he misused a nonprofit donor list.
Todd Richardson, the Republican speaker of the Missouri House, recently announced he will call for a special session to continue the investigation into the governor.
“This is not a witch hunt,” he said in response to criticism from Greitens and others.
Floor Leader Gail Beatty, a Democrat, declared that the threshold for impeachment proceedings against the governor has been met just from what the investigation has uncovered thus far.
Even a former Republican lieutenant governor has added his name to the growing chorus of Missourians calling for him to step down.
“With great sadness, I ask that Gov. Greitens resign his office or, failing that, I call on my friends in the House of Representatives to commence impeachment as provided in the Constitution,” Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder said in a statement.
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