A special House committee investigating Governor Eric Greitens is reading out loud in a hearing the deposition given by his former mistress to his defense team in a St. Louis court case.
Governor Eric Greitens photographed after being taken into custody (Photo courtesy of the St. Louis City Sheriff’s office)
The woman is central to the committee’s investigation of Greitens because he is alleged to have sexually coerced and physically abused her during activity that led to a felony charge against him.
The committee went into a closed-door session Wednesday morning to discuss photos mentioned in the deposition by Greitens defense attorney Scott Rosenblum.
Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, the committee chairman, noted the photos were from a social media site with pornographic content. He said that if they would have read the deposition as is, it could have been insinuated or understood that the photos were of the woman.
According to Barnes, the committee voted unanimously while behind closed doors to state publicly that there’s no credible evidence that the image in the pornographic photos is the woman.
Rep. Don Phillips, R-Kimberling City, said the person in the photographs, which are marked as exhibits in the deposition, bears no resemblance to the woman, who is referred to as witness 1.
“We spent a considerable amount of time interviewing witness 1,” said Phillips. “She was just a few feet away from us. In my mind, there is absolutely no question that this is not a representation of witness 1.”
The woman was called before the House committee after its investigation got going following the announcement of the felony charge against Greitens.
Rep. Curtis Trent, R-Springfield, who was not a member of the committee when the woman testified before it, said it was impossible to identify the woman in the pornographic photos.
“I think it’s impossible to ascertain the identity of the individual one way or the other based on the review of the images that we just had,” said Trent. “So, I think that the motion is appropriate because we certainly don’t want to insinuate something when there is no evidence to the affirmative.”
The committee read out loud about 100 pages of the woman’s deposition to the Greitens defense team before going into recess at noon.
There was confusion over whether numerous lines in the transcript were redacted.
Rep. Gina Mitten, D-St. Louis, told Missourinet that a procedural misunderstanding during the redaction process led to lines that should have been read by committee members being skipped.  The panel had to stop several times and regroup in order to recite all the passages that were not redacted.
The deposition reflected questions from the defense team that focused on the woman’s sexual behavior and gratification during her interactions with Greitens along with questions about the bathing suits she wears.
Copyright © 2018 · Missourinet
