An operative for Governor Eric Greitens, R, has called the chairman of a committee investigating Greitens a material witness to his own panel. Attorney Catherine Hanaway made the assertion after claiming Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, contacted the FBI about cash payment related to the investigation before notifying other members of the committee.
Missouri House Special Investigative Committee on Oversight Chairman Jay Barnes briefs reporters on March 14, 2018 (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)
Hanaway, who represents the Greitens campaign, said that Barnes revealed in his committee’s hearing Thursday that he had knowledge of $100,000 in cash payments from newspaper publisher Scott Faughn to Attorney Al Watkins before his panel knew about it, but said nothing.
Barnes revealed Thursday that he’d contacted the FBI after an early Greitens campaign advisor, Michael Hafner, had alleged before the committee that Greitens had concealed money and received foreign donations.
Hanaway said the allegations of foreign donations, which are illegal, are false and based on unreliable information from a single witness. She suggested Barnes could have reported foreign donations as fact to the FBI without any proof, and before the committee had a chance to consider the allegations. Hanaway said Barnes actions qualified him as a material witness in the investigation.
An attorney for the House committee, Edward D. “Chip” Robertson, Jr., called Hanaway’s comments a diversionary tactic and an attempt to call into question the integrity of the committee and its chairman. He noted that Hanaway, a former Republican Missouri House Speaker, had argued against turning over evidence to the House committee this week in Cole County Circuit Court. Robertson asserted that Hanaway was coordinating efforts with Greitens’ criminal defense team and said the arrangement raises a question of whether she’s actually behind a conspiracy to hide the truth.
The special House committee has more hearings planned Friday and Saturday. Friday will feature testimony from a forensics expert who examined Greitens’ cell phone and email before a felony Invasion of Privacy charge against him was dropped in St. Louis.
The case in which Greitens is accused of taking and transmitting a nonconsensual photo of a woman in a state of undress while bound and blindfolded could be revived in Jackson County Circuit Court by a special prosecutor. Greitens has admitted to having an extramarital affair but has denied any criminal wrongdoing.
The forensics expert was presumably looking at Greitens’ phone and email to see if the photo Greitens allegedly took was stored on it.
Greitens faces an additional felony charge of computer tampering for allegedly securing a donor list from his former charity without consent and using it for campaign purposes. That case has been continued until July 2nd in St. Louis Circuit Court where it’s still under review by a grand jury.
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