Missouri GOP Gov. Eric Greitens is resigning effective Friday amid twin scandals and almost certain impeachment and removal by the Missouri state legislature.
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens announced on Tuesday he is stepping down effective at 5 p.m. Friday in the face of an impeachment effort, an adverse judicial ruling and and multiple criminal investigations.
"The last few months have been incredibly difficult for me, for my team, for my friends, and many, many people whom I love," he said, saying he was the victim of "legal harassment."
"I have not broken any laws or committed any offense worthy of this treatment," he asserted. "I love Missouri and I love our people. That love remains."
After the announcement, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, a Democrat who had lead the prosecution of felony invasion of privacy charges against the governor, said her office had reached a "fair and just resolution" with Greitens' attorneys.
While Gardner dropped the invasion of privacy charges earlier this month, Greitens still faces felony data tampering for using a charity donor list to raise campaign contributions.
"I have been in contact with the Governor’s defense team over the past several days," she said in a statement. "We have reached a fair and just resolution of the pending charges. We will provide more information tomorrow. "
The announcement came hours after damaging testimony by a former campaign aide to a House committee investigating Greitens, and a separate ruling by a judge forcing the governor's campaign and a dark-money group affiliated with Greitens to reveal fundraising information.
Greitens' decision means that Lt. Gov. Mike Parson, also a Republican, will become governor.
It certainly seems like Greitens stepped down in order to drop the sexual assault charges, which is not exactly justice but the best you could hope for from a red state impeaching a Republican governor. Still, I have to wonder what becomes of the second batch of charges, mainly the campaign finance violations where Greitens allegedly used his veterans' charity as a donor list.
I guess we'll find out, this all happened pretty quickly this afternoon.
More as it develops.
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