Updated at 5:13 p.m.
The wife of embattled Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens says she was stalked by the ex-husband of the woman at the center of a sex scandal that has engulfed the Republican chief executive and his year-old administration.
Sheena Greitens leveled the charge in a letter to a special committee of the Missouri Legislature formed to investigate accusations of sexual impropriety brought against the governor by his former mistress, a hairdresser whom he had an acknowledged affair with before he was elected in 2016.
In the April 6 letter, a copy of which was obtained Saturday by the Washington Examiner, Sheena Greitens alleges that she and her family were the targets of an “escalating campaign of harassment and spying” over a two year period. Gov. Greitens’ accuser and the name of her ex-husband have not been made public.
“He put real effort into this,” Sheena Greitens writes in the letter, detailing the ex-husband’s alleged stalking conducted prior to revelations about Gov. Greitens’ extramarital affair and the allegations of sexual misconduct that followed.
“When I didn’t respond to his anonymous emails, he sent me a letter,” Sheena Greitens said. “When a letter to me didn’t produce the desired response, he contacted my parents. When letters didn’t satisfy him, he made his accusations public on Twitter. And finally, when targeting our family on social media didn’t fulfill his agenda, he secretly recorded his wife admitting to the affair and began shopping the audio tape to news outlets.”
Sheena Greitens redacted the name of the governor’s mistress’ ex-husband in the letter, explaining: “The court has determined that Mr. S is entitled to anonymity; out of respect for our legal system, I have permitted the redaction.”
Greitens is a former Navy SEAL and was a political outsider in Missouri when he was elected governor in 2016 in his first bid for elective office. The charismatic politician, with a national following and well-heeled donor network, was immediately tabbed a rising Republican star and discussed as a future presidential candidate.
That image came crashing down early this year when a hairdresser revealed that she had an affair with the governor before he was elected, which Greitens acknowledged. But the woman further alleged that the Republican engaged in sexual misconduct and blackmailed her to keep the affair quiet.
Related to those charges, Greitens in February was indicted on charges of first-degree felony invasion of privacy in a Missouri circuit court. The governor has been defiant, resisting calls to resign, including from some Republicans. Greitens and his legal team have denied all charges of wrongdoing and labeled the legal action against him a witch hunt.
“I want to let you know that we’re going to fight this, we’re going to win,” Greitens said in March, during a conference call with campaign contributors. “We’re going to win and we will emerge stronger because of it.”
Sheena Greitens has stood by the governor’s side throughout the scandal. As made clear in this new, three-page letter to the special legislative committee, Missouri’s first lady is working closely with her husband to clear his name and revive his political standing.
Though her letter focuses on alleged misdeeds of the ex-husband of the governor’s mistress, the communiqué appears designed to undermine the credibility of the governor’s accuser by calling into question claims of intimidation and other attempts to silence them made by both the mistress and her ex-husband through their attorneys.
“Mr. S claimed that my husband was with his ex-wife, and hit her, while I was in the hospital giving birth,” Sheena Greitens writes in the letter. “Nothing like that ever happened — and both Mr. S and his ex-wife know it. I know, because Eric was with me during the birth of both of our children. (As the women reading this will know, labor and delivery is not a process in which one misplaces a husband without noticing.)”
“And it wasn’t just that Eric was with me,” Sheena Greitens adds. “The affair took place in a different year than the ones in which our children were born. That this story was a flat-out lie should have been obvious, but the news outlets ran it without checking basic facts. What makes me deeply angry about this is that Mr. S and his ex-wife, have allowed this public lie to stand for months, while I have had to explain to my closest friends that Eric had not, in fact, missed the birth of either of our sons. It was a terrible lie, and it turned a private, joyful moment—the birth of our child—into a public, malicious distortion.”
Greitens’ job approval ratings have tumbled since his personal foibles were exposed. But they haven’t collapsed irreparably, some Republican insiders say. In an early March survey, 34 percent of Missouri voters gave Greitens positive marks; among Republicans, that number was nearly 55 percent.
However, the Greitens’ scandal has been uncomfortable for some Republicans on the midterm ballot, adding to the challenges of running in an environment made challenging by dissatisfaction with President Trump.
Trump’s job approval ratings are solid in Missouri, but less so in some suburban districts, where women in particular are unhappy with the president’s polarizing leadership. One Missouri Republican, lamenting the unnecessary headache caused by the scandal, referred to the matter as “Fifty Shades of Greitens,” a reference to the risqué romance novel Fifty Shades of Grey.
Meanwhile, the legal aspect of the scandal has ensnared Republican Josh Hawley, who is running for Senate against incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill.
Because of Hawley’s position as Missouri’s attorney general, he has been forced to answer questions about whether he would take action against Greitens, which could cause friction with the a Republican grassroots that is generally suspicious of accusations made against GOP politicians.
On a separate matter, Hawley this week subpoenaed Greitens as part of an investigation into a veterans charity organization with which the governor is involved.
