The chairman of the Missouri House committee that’s investigating Gov. Eric Greitens said Monday they’re getting pushback from the governor’s camp.
Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, told reporters that they’ve issued a subpoena to Greitens’ advisor Austin Chambers, and to the groups Greitens for Missouri and A New Missouri, via attorney Catherine Hanaway. He said the groups have provided some documents but are refusing to provide others.
“Upon the release of our second report, Catherine Hanaway promised that her clients would cooperate with subpoenas for production of documents and testimony to this committee, [and] this committee took her up on that promise,” Barnes said. “Unfortunately, after having promised to be fully open and fully transparent, Hanaway responded by providing some documents that were responsive to our subpoena, [but] she also objected to other large categories of documents.”
Barnes said the Special Investigative Committee on Oversight is now reviewing the documents it’s received so far.
“We are considering our options on which path to take to enforce the legislature and this committee’s subpoena power.”
In response, Hanaway accused Barnes of “playing politics during this secret investigation.”
“We have cooperated with the committee counsel and put in a good faith effort to give them the information requested – in fact, we have provided more than 14,000 documents related to the committee's request,” she said. “My clients will assert the same rights any party would have to object to requests that aren't relevant to the committee's investigation.”
Hanaway, a former Missouri House Speaker, sought the GOP nomination for governor in 2016, losing to Greitens.
The committee’s next scheduled meeting is at 8 a.m. Tuesday, and so far is open to the public. A meeting was also scheduled today, but Barnes canceled it because some committee members were not able to get to Jefferson City on time due to a traffic accident on Interstate 70.
The committee is expected to issue its final report during the upcoming special session, which could recommend impeaching Greitens. The governor is on trial in St. Louis this week on charges of invasion of privacy over allegedly taking a semi-nude photo of a woman with whom he had an affair, without her permission.
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