A veterans’ charity founded by Missouri Governor Eric Greitens says it will support an investigation into his campaign’s possible misuse of resources.
The president of The Mission Continues posted an online statement Tuesday assuring supporters that the charity did not authorize Greitens’ campaign to use its donor list.
In 2016, the Associated Press reported that Greitens raised more than $2 million for his gubernatorial bid through a donor list that included people who contributed big sums of money to the charity. Last year, the governor paid a $100 fee to the Missouri Ethics Commission for violating state campaign finance laws related to the list.
In his online statement Tuesday, Mission Continues president Spencer Kympton stated his organization did not provide or approve any use of donors’ information to the Greitens campaign for political or campaign purposes.
He said the charity had not been contacted by Attorney General Josh Hawley’s office but stressed the organization would support any inquiry by the attorney general into misuse of its resources by the Greitens campaign.
Hawley announced his probe into the governor’s campaign’s use of donor and email lists connected to the charity last Thursday. The investigation involves his office’s enforcement responsibilities under the consumer protection and charitable registration and reporting laws.
Greitens started the Mission Continues in 2007 and departed from it in 2014. He’s denied using the list for campaign fundraising purposes.
In his Tuesday statement, Mission Continues President emphasized his organization’s compliance with non-profit requirements. He said the charity does not share, sell or rent information about our donors to any persons or groups.
Greitens currently faces numerous challenges.
He was indicted by a Grand Jury in St. Louis last month on a felony invasion-of-privacy charge for allegedly snapping a nonconsensual photo of a partially unclothed woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair and then threatening to distribute the photo.
A Missouri House committee investigating the charges against Greitens will hold a closed-door meeting at the Jefferson City Police Department today.