Missouri governor to step down amid sex, fundraising scandals

(Reuters) – Missouri Governor Eric Greitens on Tuesday said he will resign from office this week, avoiding potential impeachment after he became embroiled in sexual misconduct and political fundraising scandals.

Greitens called an afternoon press conference after an unfavorable ruling earlier in the day in his computer tampering trial related to allegations he obtained and transmitted a donor list from a military veterans charity he founded in 2007 without the charity’s consent to aid his political fundraising, according to local media.

“Today I am announcing that I will resign as governor of Missouri, effective Friday,” Greitens told reporters.

“The last few months have been incredibly difficult, for me, for my family, for my team, for my friends and for many, many people that I love,” he said, adding that he had not broken any laws or committed any crimes.

“The time has come, though, to tend to those who have been wounded, and to care for those who need us most. So for the moment let us walk off the battlefield with our heads held high.”

The Republican-controlled Missouri General Assembly on May 18 began a special session in Jefferson City, Missouri, the state capital, to consider what disciplinary steps to take against the first-term Republican governor, including possible impeachment, after hearing the recommendations of a special House of Representatives investigative panel.

Greitens, a 44-year-old former Navy SEAL commando once seen as a rising star in the Republican Party, was previously charged with felony invasion of privacy in connection with an admitted extramarital affair in 2015 with a hairdresser before he was elected. He has said he is innocent, called the relationship consensual and said he was the subject of a political witch hunt.

St. Louis prosecutors dropped the felony charge before Greitens’ trial got underway. The move came after a state judge agreed to allow the defense to call Circuit Attorney for the City of St. Louis Kim Gardner as a witness.

Gardner, a Democrat, had been accused by defense attorneys of misconduct in the case. Prosecutors have said they would refile the case.

Greitens was accused of taking a photo of his lover in a state of undress without her consent and making it accessible by computer to use as retaliation should she divulge their relationship. He has denied threatening to blackmail her and his attorneys noted the alleged photograph has never been produced.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Tom Brown)

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