Despite Greitens' resignation, auditor feels responsibility to investigate legal fees

Eric Greitens is no longer Missouri's governor, but Auditor Nicole Galloway is still questioning his hiring of private attorneys to protect him from impeachment.

Galloway said Tuesday she would meet with Missouri Treasurer Eric Schmitt's office to discuss Greitens' use of private attorneys when he was facing possible impeachment by the Missouri House. She said she had "concerns about taxpayer resources being utilized for private attorneys."

"Just because Eric Greitens is no longer governor does not remove my responsibility to protect taxpayers and get answers for them," Galloway said.

Schmitt's spokesman, Garrett Poorman, said no meeting had been set with Galloway, but staff members from both offices have been in contact on the issue.

Greitens hired Ross Garber, a Washington, D.C., attorney who has defended other governors facing impeachment, and Edward Greim, a Kansas City-based attorney working for the Graves Garrett law firm. The decision drew scrutiny from Galloway, who asked in May for copies of all contracts with private attorneys, any requests for proposals or bids and information on where in the state budget the money would come from.

Attorney General Josh Hawley said in a letter to a special House committee investigating Greitens that Greitens hired the two attorneys illegally.

"It appears that the private counsel retained by the office of the governor are simply advancing the private interests" of Greitens, not the office of the governor, Hawley said in the May 18 letter.

"Under Missouri law, the duly elected attorney general — not private attorneys retained without the authorization of the General Assembly or the attorney general — has the duty and authority to safeguard the institutional interests of the office of the governor," Hawley said.

Garber was charging $320 per hour, which he said was half his normal rate. Greim was charging $340 per hour.

Both attorneys were representing the Missouri governor's office, not Greitens personally.

Garber said Tuesday he had not yet been paid for the work he did for Greitens, but he sent a bill to the Missouri governor's office.

"But I trust it will be handled appropriately," Garber said.

He pushed back against the notion the state shouldn't pay the legal fees, saying attorneys are "typically" paid by the public office budget.

"It's also best practice that it is done that way," Garber said. "It would be a horrible idea to have lawyers loyal solely to a particular individual and paid solely by that individual providing advice that implicates government agencies."

Garber said this was the "first time an issue like that has been raised in my experience."

"To me, it would be outrageous to suggest that a governor's office should have to rely on a governor's private lawyers to advise it on very significant official legal issues, like separation of powers concerns and subpoena compliance and the like," Garber said.

Under state law, the payments would have to be certified by the Missouri Office of Administration if any were issued on behalf of the governor's office, Poorman said.

Poorman said the office had not received any certifications of payments to Garber or Greim.

"If we haven't received certification, that means there haven't been payments issued related to that matter," Poorman said.

Poorman said Schmitt's office was taking the issue seriously.

Greim, the Office of Administration and spokesmen for Greitens did not immediately return a request for comment.

This story was originally published June 5, 2018 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Despite Greitens' resignation, auditor feels responsibility to investigate legal fees."