JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (CN) — Fighting for his political life, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens desperately tried to play damage control Wednesday after a special investigative committee released a report on his alleged blackmail of a former mistress that has lawmakers on both sides of the aisle calling for his immediate resignation or impeachment.
Greitens calls the investigation “a political witch hunt.”
The bipartisan committee was formed in February after Greitens was indicted by a St. Louis City jury on felony invasion of privacy charges: blackmailing a former mistress by tying her to exercise equipment and taking photos of her naked. The criminal case is set for trial in May.
The 24-page report released Tuesday contains explosive testimony from Greitens’ mistress, identified as Witness 1.
She told the committee that the first encounter occurred in March 2015 at Greitens’ home in St. Louis. She went down to his basement for what she believed would be a sexy workout.
“Upon entering the basement, Witness 1 testified that Greitens taped her hands to pull-up rings with ‘this gauzed tape stuff’ and then put a blindfold on her,” the report states. “Witness 1 testified that these items were lying on a ‘workout bench right there, and that’s where he had that stuff.’
“Witness 1 testified to Greitens’ demeanor at the time, stating, ‘(He) kind of had this controlling sort of – again, it almost as if he had a – like we were on a movie set. So he’s got this whole thing down of what he was going to say or whatever, but he was super – he was in a controlled state, which at this point was intriguing to me.’”
Greitens then put water in his mouth and tried to spit it in the woman’s mouth, the report states.
“Witness 1 testified that she had not spoken to that point, and that Greitens then ‘starts kissing down my neck and he starts kissing kind of like down to my chest,” the report states. “And he takes the shirt and rips it open.
“Witness 1 testified that she did not consent to Greitens’ tearing of the shirt, exposing her.”
The woman says Greitens then pulled down her pants and took a picture of her with her cell phone.
She testified that she never gave him consent to take her clothes off and take her picture. She acknowledged that she never actually saw him take the picture nor did she ever see the picture, but she saw the flash of his camera phone through her blindfold.
“Witness 1 testified that Greitens then said, ‘You’re not going to mention my name. Don’t even mention my name to anybody at all, because if you do, I’m going to take these pictures, and I’m going to put them everywhere I can. They are going to be everywhere, and then everyone will know what a little whore you are,’” the report states.
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