ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis grand jury has indicted Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens on a felony invasion of privacy charge for allegedly taking a compromising photo of a woman with whom he had an affair in 2015, the city circuit attorney’s office said Thursday. The charge says Greitens knowingly took a photograph of a woman in a “state of full or partial nudity without the knowledge and consent” of that woman, CBS affiliate KMOV reports.
The charge also alleges the photograph was taken “in a place where a person would have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and the defendant subsequently transmitted the image contained in the photograph in a manner that allowed access to that image via a computer.”
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner launched an investigation in January after Greitens admitted to an affair with his St. Louis hairdresser that began in March 2015. According to KMOV, Greitens admitted in January to having an affair with a hairdresser. In a recording obtained by KMOV, the woman said she had a sexual encounter with Greitens and that he tried to blackmail her with an image to keep the encounter quiet. Greitens has repeatedly denied the blackmail allegations. He has also repeatedly declined to answer direct questions about whether or not he took a photo of the woman.
Gardner declined comment beyond a brief news release, but spokeswoman Susan Ryan confirmed the indictment stemmed from a photo Greitens allegedly took of the woman.
Greitens was taken into custody in St. Louis and released on his own recognizance, Ryan said.
The woman told her husband, who was secretly taping the conversation, that Greitens took the compromising photo of her at his home and threatened to use it as blackmail if she spoke about the affair. A news release from Gardner says it is a felony if a person transmits an image “in a manner that allows access to that image via a computer.”
Messages seeking comment from Greitens and his attorney were not immediately returned.
Greitens was elected governor in November 2016.
He has repeatedly denied blackmailing the woman, but has repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether he took a photo.
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