The bipartisan Missouri House committee investigating Governor Eric Greitens’ (R) indictment will issue a report next week.
House Special Investigative Committee on Oversight Chairman Jay Barnes, at podium,
addresses the Capitol Press Corps on February 26, 2018. Speaker Pro Tem Elijah Haahr is next to Barnes (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)
That’s according to State Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, who chairs the House Special Investigative Committee on Oversight.
Barnes made the announcement in a written statement, after the House adjourned for the week on Thursday afternoon.
While House Republican leaders did not hold a press conference on Thursday after adjournment, House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty, D-Kansas City, addressed the issue with the Capitol Press Corps.
“People are nervous about what is going to come out of this report and are anxiously waiting to see it, to see just what’s there,” Beatty says.
Beatty says House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, told her the report will not be released on Monday.
Speaker Richardson issued a statement on Thursday, which reads: “When the committee finalizes its report, we will release it to the public.”
As for Minority Leader Beatty, she disagrees with Governor Greitens’ request that the committee delay its report until after the May trial.
Missouri House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty addresses Capitol reporters on March 15, 2018 (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)
She says it should be released on-schedule.
“The reality is the governor spent $50,000 on (radio) commercials, he’s already out there tainting the jury, so I don’t see that our report coming out at this point does anything more that what he’s already doing,” says Beatty.
The “Kansas City Star” first reported this week that Greitens has requested the report’s delay.
A St. Louis grand jury has indicted Greitens on one felony count of invasion of privacy.
Greitens has blasted St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner (D), describing her as a “reckless liberal prosecutor who uses her office to score political points.”
Gardner is a former Democratic Missouri lawmaker.
The February indictment alleges that Greitens photographed a woman in a state of full or partial nudity, and “subsequently transmitted the image contained in the photograph in a manner that allowed access to that image via a computer.”
Greitens has admitted to an affair with the woman, but has denied the blackmail allegations.
Judge Rex Burlison has scheduled a May 14th trial date, in downtown St. Louis.
Barnes told the Capitol Press Corps in mid-March that a court reporter has attended every hearing, taking “a transcription of the proceedings.”
He says those transcriptions will be released, at the investigation’s conclusion.
Beatty says she wants to make sure it’s an accurate report.
When he was appointed in late February, Barnes told reporters that the committee’s task was to investigate facts, and to do so “in a way that is fair, thorough and timely.”
