ST. LOUIS (AP) - A forensic examiner was analyzing the cellphone of Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens on Tuesday, days before the governor goes to trial in St. Louis on a felony invasion of privacy charge.
Multiple local media outlets reported that the examiner was working in a locked courtroom.
Greitens’ attorneys declined to comment when leaving the courthouse Tuesday afternoon.
Greitens is accused of taking an unauthorized and compromising photo of a woman with whom he had an affair. Greitens admitted in January to an extramarital affair in 2015, before he was elected, but has denied criminal wrongdoing. Jury selection is set to begin Thursday.
Prosecutors confirmed in court on Monday that they don’t have the photo in question.
Any evidence found on Greitens’ cellphone would be turned over to Cole County Judge Richard Callahan, a former U.S. attorney in St. Louis who has been appointed “special master” to review any data extracted from the cellphones of Greitens, the woman or her ex-husband.
Greitens also faces a second felony charge of computer data tampering for his use of a donor list from the veterans charity he founded, The Mission Continues, for his 2016 gubernatorial campaign.
Meanwhile, the Missouri Legislature will convene in special session later this month to consider impeachment. Republicans as well as Democrats have called for Greitens’ ouster since release of a House report in April included testimony in which the woman alleged that Greitens coerced her into sex acts, spanked and struck her.
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