Lawmakers Say Greitens Falsified Campaign Finance Reports

JEFFERSON CITY, MO — A new report released today by a Missouri House investigative committee alleges Gov. Eric Greitens lied about campaign filings and violated campaign finance law when he used a charitable donor list to raise money for his run for governor.

Based on testimony from almost a dozen witnesses, the Republican led committee said it found evidence Greitens directed staffers to use the charity donor list to support his political campaign. The list contained the names and contact information of everyone who had donated more than $1,000 to the governor's charity, The Mission Continues — more than 500 individuals and businesses.

Nearly $2 million in contributions to Greitens' gubernatorial run came from donors who had also given significant amounts to his charity organization, according to financial records examined by the AP two years ago.

In April 2017, Greitens admitted to the Missouri Ethics Commission that he used the list and claimed Danny Laub, a former adviser, had authorized the use of the list. But Laub was not an employee of the charity and had no authority to approve the use of the list, he told investigators. Laub also told the committee he was misled by the Greitens campaign into signing the report that settled the 2017 ethics complaint against the governor.

"And then Austin [Chambers] says to me, 'I don't know if you know this, but there's a bulls--t ethics complaint filed against us by the Democrat party about this Mission Continues donor list,'" Laub testified. "And he said, 'I need someone who was on the campaign at the time, because I wasn't, to put their name down so we can get this bulls--t complaint dismissed. We will pay' — assuming him and the campaign — 'will pay the fine, but we need to put someone's name down who was on the campaign at the time, and I was not.' And he said, 'Can we put your name down?'"

According to the report, Laub testified that everything of substance in the settlement agreement between Greitens and the ethics commission was, in fact, untrue.

The governor posted a response to the allegations contained in the new report on his personal Facebook page Wednesday afternoon, saying — among other things — that he was never asked to testify before the committee and that his campaign was not asked to provide any documents.

The state's attorney general, Republican Josh Hawley, said last month that he had uncovered evidence of a crime in Greitens' use of a charity donor list to raise money for his gubernatorial campaign, and the governor was indicted on another two felony counts not long after.

The governor was also indicted in February for invasion of privacy, after Greitens' former hairdresser accused him of taking a non-consensual, partially-naked photo of her and using it to blackmail her into keeping their relationship quiet. The woman has been called the governor's mistress, but testimony released by a House Special Investigative Committee last month calls into question whether their relationship was consensual.

The governor admitted to having an affair in January, calling it a "deeply personal mistake" in a joint statement with his wife. But he denied doing anything illegal, instead blaming a "reckless liberal prosecutor" for the case against him.

Dozens of lawmakers, Democrat and Republican, have called on the embattled governor to resign, but Greitens has said he's not going anywhere. As lawmakers consider whether to begin impeachment proceedings, it's increasingly clear he may soon not have a choice in the matter.

Read the full report here.

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