Fox News contributor sues St. Louis prosecutor over records from Greitens investigation
A Fox News contributor seeking records about communications the St. Louis prosecutor had with individuals and organizations during the 2018 investigation of former Gov. Eric Greitens has filed a lawsuit alleging violations of Missouri’s open records laws.
John Solomon, a Washington, D.C. reporter best known for helping spread widely-debunked conspiracy theories about former Vice president Joe Biden and Ukraine, filed suit on Jan. 10 accusing St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office of failing to respond to a records request and illegally withholding public records.
Initially the office didn’t respond to Solomon’s request, and after several months told him the records were closed.
Gardner’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Greitens, who resigned from office in June 2018 while the legislature was considering impeachment, faced felony charges stemming from allegations that he threatened to release a nude photograph of the woman -- taken while she was blindfolded and her hands were bound -- if she ever spoke publicly about the emotionally and physically abusive relationship.
The woman testified under oath on numerous occasions that Greitens engaged in violent and coercive sexual misconduct. Greitens never testified, but he publicly denied the accusations.
David Roland, Solomon’s attorney and director of litigation at the libertarian Freedom Center of Missouri, said his client has reason to believe that Gardner “had been in conversation with high-level political donors about the prosecution, but he wanted confirmation before he published anything on it.”
Among those who Solomon included in his request were the alleged victim and her ex-husband; the ex-husband’s attorney, Al Watkins; billionaire and political donor George Soros; two former state representatives; several individuals in the low-income housing tax credit industry, and newspaper publisher Scott Faughn.
“We have reason to believe there are records responsive to his request,” Roland said. “We filed the lawsuit because they were stonewalling. If these records exist, the public has a right to see them.”
Watkins represented the ex-husband of the woman with whom Greitens admitted to having the relationship. Watkins helped publicize secretly recorded conversations where the woman alleged Greitens had photographed her while bound and partially nude without her consent in order to blackmail her into silence.
Faughn made $100,000 in payments to Watkins in the days leading up to the story about the alleged blackmail breaking on St. Louis television station KMOV.
Watkins testified under oath to a House investigative committee that Faughn told him that the money came from an “anonymous wealthy Republican who did not like Greitens.”
Faughn has told a different story about the money, saying it was his and that he was buying the secret recordings for a book he was writing about Greitens.
The recordings were given to other journalists for free, and Faughn’s book has yet to be published. Lawmakers called Faughn’s explanation “mind-boggling.”
Greitens and his attorneys alleged that Faughn’s payments originated from figures in the low-income house tax credit industry, noting that one of the sponsors of his weekly television talk show is Sterling Bank, which specializes in financing projects involving low-income housing tax credits.
Soros’ inclusion likely stems from an attempt by the Missouri Republican Party in the days’ following Greitens’ indictment to tie the prosecution to the billionaire by pointing out that a group he backed donated $200,000 to Gardner’s campaign in 2016.
Gardner’s prosecution of Greitens has been the subject of withering criticism.
She dropped the charges after the judge in the case ruled that Gardner could be called as a witness and questioned about alleged perjury committed by a private investigator hired by her office.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker was assigned to handle the case, but she ultimately declined to refile charges shortly before the a statute of limitations was set to expire.
The investigator, former FBI agent William Tisaby, was eventually charged with perjury and evidence tampering, and pleaded not guilty. The case is ongoing.
The controversy around the question of Gardner’s knowledge of Tisaby’s actions sparked a lawsuit this week by Gardner accusing the city, the local police union and others of a coordinated and racist conspiracy aimed at forcing her out of office.
The lawsuit alleges civil rights violations as well as violations of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.
Gardner is black. The named defendants are white.
This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 5:14 PM.
