ST. LOUIS (AP) - The Latest on the investigation of Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (all times local):
6:45 p.m.
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens’ campaign has paid at least $25,000 to Husch Blackwell for legal representation as the Republican faces trouble on several fronts.
Data released Monday show Greitens’ campaign in March paid the St. Louis law firm, which the campaign put on retainer.
Greitens is due in court next month on a felony invasion-of-privacy charge related to an extramarital affair in 2015.
A veterans charity founded by Greitens also is under an attorney general investigation after media reports that his campaign obtained and used a charity donor list in 2015 as it ramped up fundraising for his gubernatorial bid.
Greitens’ campaign fundraising has been low in the past few months since he acknowledged having the affair and allegations of physical violence against the woman were made public. He raised about $32,000 from January through March, down from about $630,000 raised in the last three months of 2017.
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3:45 p.m.
An attorney for Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is urging the state’s attorney general to recuse his office from an investigation of a veterans charity founded by the governor.
In a letter written Monday and obtained by The Associated Press, attorney Edward L. Dowd Jr. raised concerns over Josh Hawley’s comment last week urging Greitens to resign. The letter says Hawley’s investigation is “clearly compromised” because he has “predetermined the guilt of his own investigative target.”
Hawley’s office is investigating The Mission Continues as it relates to the state’s consumer protection and charitable registration and reporting laws.
Hawley was among many elected officials urging Greitens’ to step down after a report from a special legislative committee on Greitens’ extramarital affair with his St. Louis hairdresser in 2015. Testimony cited in the report alleged Greitens was sexually aggressive toward the woman.
A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office did not immediately comment.
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11:20 a.m.
A top official with the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office says the “egregious mistake” of hiring a man who bungled the investigation of Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens should not prompt dismissal of the indictment against the governor.
In a court hearing Monday in Greitens felony invasion-of-privacy case, Chief Trial Assistant Robert Dierker admitted that the actions of William Tisaby have “created a terrible appearance” and given the false impression that the prosecutor’s office hid evidence, including delaying handing over notes and a videotape from depositions.
Judge Rex Burlison will rule Thursday on a request from Greitens’ lawyers to dismiss the indictment. Greitens is accused of taking a compromising photo of a woman with whom he had an affair without her consent.
Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner hired Tisaby, a private investigator, rather than relying on St. Louis police for the investigation.
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