Greitens’ team grilled woman about sexual practices, bathing suit preference

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens’ legal team grilled his alleged victim about whether she was aroused during the sexual encounter at the center of the scandal, according to testimony read aloud by Missouri lawmakers Wednesday.

The woman described the governor holding her in a bear hug to prevent her from leaving his basement after he allegedly took a photograph of her without her consent.

She testified that he then forced her into oral sex, an allegation that was first made public in a Missouri House report last month.

During a deposition that was shared with Missouri lawmakers from St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner, the governor’s attorney Scott Rosenblum sought to undermine that claim by asking the woman about her oral sex technique and whether she was aroused during the encounter.

“You didn't say, 'No, you're not doing it?' " Rosenblum asked.

"I didn't say anything,” she responded.

Lawmakers have spent Tuesday and Wednesday reading the woman’s testimony aloud, a surreal spectacle in which they take turns as the woman and the governor’s attorney.

The testimony reveals highly personal details about the relationship between the governor and the woman that she never wanted public.

The governor’s lawyer asked her whether she has worn bikinis at the beach and whether she ever uploaded any images of herself in a state of undress to a website.

Rosenblum asked her whether the governor was playing a “Fifty Shades of Grey”-style character when he allegedly told her that he had taken a photo of her.

She said he was speaking as himself and not as a character.

The woman testified that the governor had called her “a whore” during the encounter and asked whether she would speak his name.

"I just gritted my teeth and said no,” she said.

Greitens’ attorney grilled the woman about her decision to return to the governor’s house after the initial encounter, suggesting she had left her keys behind on purpose.

She faced specific and graphic questions about her subsequent consensual sexual encounters with the governor and with her ex-husband, who first made the details of her affair with the governor public in January against her wishes.

And she was grilled about her decision to not inform a friend, who was a confidante about her encounters with Greitens, about an alleged slap she received from the governor.

“Because it was embarrassing,” the woman said.

The testimony read at the legislative hearing clarified a widely reported claim that the woman said she had dreamed the alleged incident.

In context, the woman testified she could not specifically see the governor holding a phone during the encounter but could picture it on a bench. Her comment about a possible dream was specifically in reference to whether she saw the phone.

Rosenblum also questioned the woman about the fact that she never saw the photograph.

The woman said the governor told her he took it, but Rosenblum countered that by arguing that the threat of a photo could be as effective as an actual photo and that the woman had never perceived it with her five senses.

This story was originally published May 23, 2018 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Greitens’ team grilled woman about sexual practices, bathing suit preference."