Missouri lawmakers subpoena Greitens’ top political adviser

The Missouri House committee investigating allegations of wrongdoing against Gov. Eric Greitens has issued subpoenas to the governor's campaign, his political nonprofit and his top political adviser, Austin Chambers.

The subpoena to Chambers is the first to a member of Greitens' inner circle. It represents an escalation of the legislative investigation just days before lawmakers convene a special session to consider impeachment and while the governor stands trial for invasion of privacy in St. Louis.

Chambers is Greitens' senior adviser and runs the governor's nonprofit, A New Missouri Inc. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Rep. Jay Barnes, a Jefferson City Republican and chairman of the Special Investigative Committee on Oversight, announced Monday that the subpoenas were issued after the attorney representing Greitens' campaign staff, former House Speaker Catherine Hanaway, decried the findings of a House report over the fact that no campaign officials were interviewed.

"Catherine Hanaway promised that her clients would cooperate with subpoenas for documents and testimony from this committee," Barnes said Monday. "This committee took her up on that promise. Speaker (Todd) Richardson and this committee issued subpoenas to Greitens for Missouri, A New Missouri and Austin Chambers."

Barnes said that while Hanaway has provided some documents, "she also objected to other, large categories of documents. We are in the process of reviewing the documents provided to this committee, of which there was a substantial number. And we’re considering our options on which path to take to enforce this legislature and this committee’s subpoena power."

He then declined to answer any further questions from the media.

A spokesman for Greitens' legal defense team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did Chambers nor Michael Adams, Greitens campaign attorney.

The House committee issued a report earlier this month that contained allegations that Greitens knowingly lied to the state ethics commission about how he came to possess a donor list belonging to a veterans charity. The report also included testimony from Greitens' former campaign manager that Chambers lied and tricked him into taking the blame for how the campaign obtained the donor list.

Greitens is charged in St. Louis with one felony count of computer tampering, which is essentially electronic theft, over his campaign's use of the donor list.

Hanaway, who lost to Greitens in the 2016 GOP gubernatorial primary, said after the report was released that the committee should have talked to the campaign before issuing its report.

“If Chairman Barnes were on a quest to find out the truth, he has unfinished business to conduct," she said at the time. "He ought to ask the campaign for its version of events before acting as judge and jury in a matter that was settled long ago."

In addition to being Greitens' senior adviser, Chambers is also the protege of Nick Ayers, Greitens' top 2016 campaign consultant who now serves as chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence.

This story was originally published May 14, 2018 at 1:49 PM with the headline "Missouri lawmakers subpoena Greitens’ top political adviser."