Like Latin words carved in marble in the stately halls of the state Capitol, state lawmakers on Wednesday chiseled the epitaph on the stone marking the shallow political grave of Missouri’s 56th governor, Eric Robert Greitens.
He is a predator. He hit a woman. He called her a whore.
Among the many damning allegations made in a more than 400-page report released by a Missouri House investigative committee are shameful details of the first encounter between Greitens and his former hair stylist in March 2015 in the then-Republican candidate’s basement while his wife was away from home.
The committee, led by state Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, met mostly in secret since it convened in February. That was after a ºüÀêÊÓƵ grand jury indicted Greitens on a felony charge of invasion of privacy.
The governor and his team of high-priced attorneys tried to stop the report’s release.
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It is no wonder why.
According to testimony from the woman, Greitens ripped her clothes and pulled her pants down. He stopped her from leaving his basement when she was crying and “fearful.†He grabbed her in a bear hug, lowered her to the ground, and placed his genitals inches from her mouth. Feeling she had no choice if she was to be allowed to leave the Central West End home, she performed oral sex on the man who would become governor.
“I didn’t want to do it,†she testified. The woman said she felt “coerced, maybe. I felt as though that would allow me to leave.â€
In her testimony, the woman at the center of the controversy, the one whom Greitens is accused of taking a photo of in a state of undress without her consent, says that before he was governor, the former Navy SEAL hit her. He smacked her and slapped her, and then said, “You’re fine.â€
When the incident between Greitens and the woman first came to light, attorney James Bennett of the Dowd Bennett law firm denied all allegations except for the fact that the governor had cheated on his wife.
“No violence. No picture taken. No threat of blackmail,†Bennett said then. Greitens himself dodged every way imaginable the question about whether he took the fated photo.
The “no violence†pledge was contradicted by the woman in her testimony before Barnes’ committee.
He hit her, according to her testimony, at Greitens’ home, in a spare bedroom. It was three months after the first incident. They were kissing when Greitens asked if she had been with anybody sexually since their first encounter. Yes, she said. She had been with her estranged husband.
He slapped her. She told the House committee she didn’t believe he was trying to hurt her.
“I felt like he was trying to claim me,†she testified. “It wasn’t sweet and gentle. It was forceful.â€
Greitens refused to testify to the committee, despite several offers by Barnes and assurances that his questioning would be conducted in secret, as was the case for all witnesses.
The next hit was about a week later. They were working out in his basement.
“ … it turned sexual in nature,†she testified, “... out of nowhere, (he) just, like, kind of smacked me and shoved me down on the ground.†The incident, she said, “might have actually left a mark.â€
The testimony rings a bell that cannot be unrung. Though Greitens has had little political support since the allegations of his affair became public in January, the American political system is full of examples of politicians’ being forgiven for their sexual dalliances. Domestic violence — even when there is no criminal charge — is another matter entirely.
Gone forever is the image of the ethical family man who is the first governor to use a picture with his wife and children as the governor’s official portrait that hangs in state buildings.
Regardless of what happens in May when Greitens’ criminal trial is scheduled in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, the document produced by the House will always dog whatever image he tries to recreate after he is impeached, resigns or simply walks away after forcing Missouri to deal with him for another three years.
There is a reason the governor and his public relations team, headed by GOP consultant Jeff Roe, a man the governor once referred to as a “snake,†spent so much time this week attacking the credibility of the victim in his criminal case. They leaked two sentences from nine hours of deposition. They paid to promote social media posts that disparaged her. Anonymous Twitter accounts probably connected to the strategy tweeted her name and her photo.
It was disgusting and calculated.
It was the sort of thing that Greitens campaigned against. Here are his words from a letter to supporters in February 2016:
“Still, today, people refuse to take responsibility for what they did a year ago. Still today, anonymous people and their political allies launch the most vile attacks against political opponents, and justify it by flippantly saying, ‘Well, it’s just politics.’ â€
Two years later, Greitens is coordinating just such an attack against a woman who was thrust into the public square by an ex-husband’s vindictiveness and the governor’s out-of-control hubris. He has become that which he claimed to loathe. Or maybe this is just who he was all along.
Barnes and his fellow House members found the woman to be a “credible witness.†Her testimony was supported by contemporary audio tapes and the testimony of other witnesses. The committee of five Republicans and two Democrats believes she is telling the truth.
What comes next is out of the governor’s hands. He faces trial in criminal court and in the court of public opinion. In the latter court, the Report of the Special Investigative Committee on Oversight is Exhibit A.
The words in that historic document sting hard, like the forceful slap of a former Navy SEAL’s hand across the face of a woman Eric Greitens called a whore.