A grand jury in St. Louis indicted Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens on one felony count of invasion of privacy stemming from his 2015 extramarital affair, the City of St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
“As I have stated before, it is essential for residents of the City of St. Louis and our state to have confidence in their leaders. They must know that the Office of the Circuit Attorney will hold public officials accountable in the same manner as any other resident of our city,” Kimberly Gardner, circuit attorney for the city of St. Louis, said in a statement. “Both parties and the people of St. Louis deserve a thorough investigation of these allegations.”
The indictment states around March 21, 2015, Greitens “knowingly photographed” a woman who was either fully or partially nude without her knowledge and consent. The photo was allegedly taken “in a place where a person would have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
Greitens then “transmitted the image contained in the photograph in a manner that allowed access to that image via a computer,” according to the indictment.
The Circuit Attorney’s Office opened an investigation last month into allegations Greitens, a Republican, blackmailed a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.
In a statement following the indictment, Greitens condemned the “misguided political decision” by a “reckless liberal prosecutor,” referring to Gardner, who is a Democrat.
“As I have said before, I made a personal mistake before I was Governor. I did not commit a crime,” Greitens said in a statement reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “With today’s disappointing and misguided political decision, my confidence in our prosecutorial system is shaken, but not broken. I know this will be righted soon. The people of Missouri deserve better than a reckless liberal prosecutor who uses her office to score political points.”
“I look forward to the legal remedies to reverse this action,” he added. “This will not for a moment deter me from doing the important work of the great people of Missouri.”
Greitens has admitted to having the affair, which took place in 2015. A former Navy SEAL, Greitens was elected governor in 2016.
The affair came to light after a St. Louis CBS affiliate revealed the woman’s ex-husband had covertly recorded a conversation with her, during which she said she had an affair with Greitens.
The ex-husband said Greitens took a nude photo of the woman and used it to blackmail her to keep the affair quiet.
Greitens allegedly told the woman he deleted the photo.
A lawyer for the governor denied Greitens wanted to blackmail the woman.
