With delayed publicity of affair, Gov. Greitens runs afoul of #MeToo movement

JEFFERSON CITY — Gov. Eric Greitens' affair was known to his political opponents more than a year ago, before he was elected. But despite the buzzing rumor mill, his infidelity wasn't in the public eye until last week.

Rumors of the affair percolated since at least the summer of 2016, said Roy Temple, who at the time was the chair of the Missouri Democratic Party.

Among Democrats and Republicans alike, Greitens' affair "was just kind of common knowledge in political circles," said Temple, whom the News-Leader contacted after St. Louis television station KMOV reported Greitens' admission of an affair and denial that he allegedly blackmailed his hairdresser.

GOP observers — not candidates — whispered rumors of the affair after Greitens won the primary in August 2016, Temple said. And as the year passed, the rumors became more specific, including the woman's identity and eventually, her ex-husband's name.

At this point, Temple said, he recognized the man and reached out through a mutual acquaintance, if for no other reason than to see whether there was any truth to what he had heard.

Temple and the man spoke by phone in August 2016 and met later that month. Then, Temple said he learned "a great deal more detail" and was presented with documents the man retained and a recording of a March 25, 2015, conversation.

In the recorded conversation, the man assured his wife that what she tells him about her March 21 encounter with Greitens won't leave the car.

On the recording, the woman says Greitens allegedly invited her into his home, talked her into his basement, bound her, blindfolded her, pulled her pants down, took a photograph of her and told her that she was "never going to mention (Greitens') name, otherwise there will be pictures of (her) everywhere." 

Greitens' attorney has said any blackmail allegation is false and denied that any such photograph was ever taken. The allegations have triggered a criminal investigation by the St. Louis Circuit Attorney.

At the time of that first encounter with his hairdresser, Greitens had created an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for his gubernatorial run, and two days later, the former Navy SEAL was in Chicago to promote his book "Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life."

The woman's ex-husband knew Greitens was considering running for office and urged the woman to "risk the embarrassment" in publicly challenging Greitens' image as a "manly hero."

"And I'll have you know, I can destroy his career in a half an hour ...," the man tells the woman at one point on the tape. "He took a picture of my wife naked as blackmail. There is no worse person." (The man's attorney, Al Watkins, has said that the man's agenda is to protect his children and their opinion of their mother.)

Though the ex-husband did not follow through with the threat at the time, he did try to alert the future governor's wife.

Watkins provided the News-Leader with a message the man sent to Sheena Greitens using a pseudonym. The email was sent in early July 2015, at a time when the man believed his wife and Eric Greitens were again together at the Greitens residence.

"There is another woman in your home right now," the man wrote to Sheena Greitens, according to the email provided by Watkins. "I'm assuming you're out of town again. If you want to know more contact me here. I'm sorry. This isn't fake or spam. They are at the Maryland address (in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis)."

Sheena Greitens' email provided an automatic reply that thanked the sender and said she was currently traveling with limited access to email. The man wrote again that day, several hours later: "Today was not the first time he has had her in your home."

Why Democrats didn't go public

Temple told the News-Leader that he was struck by what he termed "extraordinary attempts by Eric Greitens at that time to maintain secrecy," based on the ex-husband's account and the documents Temple reviewed.

Greitens has been since scrutinized for accepting millions of dollars in untraceable donations, the anonymously sourced political contributions he has received through a nonprofit set up by senior aides and the illegal transfer of a donor list from the pro-veteran charity he founded to his political campaign. Attorney General Josh Hawley currently is investigating Greitens' and his senior staff members' use of a communication tool that deletes messages after they are read.

Temple said he was supposed to meet with the ex-husband again in mid-September of 2016. Instead, the Democratic operative was contacted by Watkins, the ex-husband's attorney. From their conversation, Temple said, he understood that the ex-husband wanted time to think and that Watkins was to be the go-between from then on. 

By then, the race between Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster and Greitens was heated — but the ex-husband, who was worried about the effect on his children, did not want to go public with what he knew.

If the man had expressed a desire to go public, Temple said, "I would have connected him to a reporter and let them make a news judgment" about the affair involving Greitens — who presented himself as "a towering symbol of virtue and family values" Temple said — and "allegations related to violence and threats."

Watkins has pointed out that if the ex-husband had a political agenda or aimed to damage Greitens' reputation, he could have gone on the record when Greitens and Koster were locked in a tight contest during their race's final weeks.

Greitens and his campaign often had portrayed him as a family man, particularly in contrast with Koster, who is divorced and whose ex-wife spent $200,000 against him in an earlier race. For example, their different marital statuses were invoked by Greitens' campaign manager Austin Chambers in September 2016 when asked why Greitens was not following Koster's lead in releasing tax returns.

"You know, it's something that (Eric Greitens) and Sheena are talking about this weekend, and it's certainly something they're considering," Chambers told the News-Leader then. "They've got to make that decision as a family. Chris can make it himself."

Temple and a former Koster campaign aide talked regularly at the time, and Temple said he told Koster's team there was substance to the rumors of Greitens having an extramarital affair, but that nothing could happen unless the man would go public.

"I wasn't going to just start siccing reporters on the man," Temple said, adding that he gave his word to the ex-husband that he wouldn't go public.

A Koster campaign official confirmed to the News-Leader that prior to the November election, they discussed with Temple substantiated rumors that Greitens had an extramarital affair. The Koster staffer said top campaign aides did not hear about the alleged blackmail then and did not talk of the affair to Koster, who could not be reached for comment.

Speaking to Greitens' general counsel hours before news of the affair broke Wednesday, Watkins said he attempted to reach out to Greitens through back channels prior to the election to let him know that the ex-husband wanted to put the affair behind him. Watkins said he was hired to "put the kibosh on it" and credited the Democrats who knew of the affair with not going public.

Since the election

Greitens was elected in November 2016 and started implementing parts of his conservative agenda throughout 2017, while he continued to project the image of a patriarch of a solid, happy family. The Democratic party replaced Temple as state party chair, and Koster's campaign staffers dispersed.

Rumors of the affair remained in circulation throughout the first year of the Republican governor's term — and according to Watkins, interest rose sharply in early to mid-December.

Watkins has facilitated contact with media outlets interested in his client's story, but he has rejected the notion that he is "shopping" the story to various news outlets. Several weeks ago, Watkins said, media interest on the local and national levels reached a frenzied pitch — including a phone call by a national reporter to one of the ex-husband's children.

Watkins recounted this when Greitens' general counsel, Lucinda Luetkemeyer, called him hours before the story broke on Wednesday. Like a lot of people in the Capitol, Luetkemeyer spent part of that day trying to ferret out a rumor about the governor, and she said in a statement she called Watkins for more information.

"I was a supporter of and I voted for your boss, and I will tell you that I did everything I could to put the kibosh on this," Watkins told Luetkemeyer. "My duty, though, is to my client." He added later: "I have heard enough and seen enough corroborative documents and things to support the proposition that the umbrella needs to go up."

Luetkemeyer, who works for the state, says she initiated the midafternoon call with Watkins and used her personal cellphone to "determine whether these rumors related to the Governor personally or the official office ... Following the call, I referred the matter to the Governor's personal counsel, and advised our official press office that further comment related to this issue should be handled by the Governor's personal counsel." 

On a recording Watkins provided, Luetkemeyer says she "understand(s) generally what's been going on" and wonders whether the ex-husband has been talking to the media. Watkins affirms this and declines to go into great detail about the allegations.

The call between the two attorneys shows at least one of the governor's top state staffers vetting rumors about Greitens' affair prior to 10 p.m. Wednesday, when the news got out for good.

KMOV-TV reporter Lauren Trager has said on St. Louis Public Radio that before her station broke the story, she spoke with the woman off-the-record and the ex-husband on the record. Trager added that the station waited to publish until Greitens confirmed he had an affair.

The dam starts to break

Since KMOV aired its story — based on an interview with the ex-husband, his surreptitious recording and the governor's own admission, but without on-the-record comments from the woman — the governor's private attorney has released several statements from Eric and Sheena Greitens, and from himself.

"A few years ago, before Eric was elected Governor, there was a time when he was unfaithful in our marriage," the joint statement said, in part. "This was a deeply personal mistake. Eric took responsibility, and we dealt with this together honestly and privately."

When the ex-husband went public, "I knew it was him," said Temple, who reiterated that he kept his word to the ex-husband to not publicize the affair.

Temple said he felt free to comment to other media outlets after the news broke. Based on his conversations with the ex-husband and Watkins, Temple told Talking Points Memo, a liberal political news site, that Greitens allegedly slapped the woman during a July encounter. The slapping allegations, which are not part of the woman's recorded statements, have since been reported by the Associated Press and other media outlets.

When the News-Leader asked about the new allegations, Greitens' attorney, Jim Bennett, categorically denied the slapping allegation and seized on the liberal site's use of Temple as a source to claim "this is a political hit piece."

"We have been asked repeatedly by reputable news outlets why we believe this nearly three-year-old news story is coming out now," Bennett said in an email. "The latest reporting has finally disclosed that the reporting was being driven by a 'source' who is the former Democrat state party chairman and who apparently has not spoken to the person in question."

Asked about these statements by Bennett, Temple dismissed "the governor's assault on me" as a last-ditch communications tactic by Greitens' allies.

"That is just too convenient a tool for them to reach for," Temple said. "When they are in a desperate situation with terrible facts, it's far easier for them to lay it off as a political attack."

#MeToo's role in the reaction

The News-Leader has not spoken with either the ex-husband or the woman with whom the governor cheated on his wife, instead communicating through attorneys for all three parties. The News-Leader has declined to name the former couple. The woman's attorney has said his client wants to have her privacy respected.

And therein lies another problem, as pointed out to the News-Leader by multiple lawmakers, including Rep. Crystal Quade, D-Springfield.

"We're essentially re-victimizing her by having this come forward without her consent," Quade said last week. "And if these allegations are true, this woman had terrible things happen to her without her consent, and it's happening all over again."

Questions of power, consent and consequences gained national prominence with the rise of the #MeToo movement, through which women have come forward with allegations and evidence that they have been wronged by men in positions of power.

Watkins noted the heightened awareness about exploitation of those in positions of little or no authority when asked about recent interest in his client's story. The increased social sensitivity and awareness "clearly is playing a role in how this tragic collapse of a family is used, and the role of the governor in that collapse."

John Hancock, a GOP consultant and former chair of the Missouri Republican Party, questioned whether the #MeToo movement was the proper context when the News-Leader asked about the movement's possible impact on Greitens' scandal. 

"The 'Me Too' movement, as I understand it, deals with sexual assault, unwanted sexual advances, and demands for sex by a superior over a subordinate. This instance, setting aside the photo / blackmail allegations which may or may not be true or provable, seems to involve a consensual sexual affair," Hancock said in an email. "Marital infidelity is tragic for those families involved and may require years to process before healing. The current situation does not, however, appear to me to be analogous with the kinds of offenses brought to light by the recent 'Me Too' movement."

Two Missouri political science professors contacted by the News-Leader did see the effect of #MeToo movement when asked what was different about the news of Greitens' affair coming out in 2018 rather than before the 2016 election.

"The current social and political environment clearly shifts the burden of proof to the accused," said Peverill Squire, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. "Given everything that the public has recently heard about behavior in the political, entertainment and business worlds, even the most sordid accusations are now thought to be plausible. The timing could not have been worse for the governor and the fact that he had to admit to some of what he was accused makes it worse for him."

Dave Robertson, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said "the best test of the impact of the #MeToo movement" is "the accusation that he threatened the woman involved if she exposed him."

"The Governor denies it, and right now it is his word against her and her former husband," Robertson said in an email. "In a case like this, Americans are more skeptical of the denier. Fair or unfair, the #MeToo movement undoubtedly has reduced the number of people willing to give Governor Greitens the benefit of the doubt, because it seems common for public figures to deny the first allegations."

Bennett, Greitens' attorney, referred to previous statements and declined to comment further when asked Tuesday by the News-Leader. Despite some calls for the governor to step down, Greitens has not indicated that he will resign.