Missouri Ethics Commission dismisses claims Greitens broke campaign finance rules
The Missouri Ethics Commission on Friday, March 11, dismissed a complaint filed against former Gov. Eric Greitens that alleged he failed to disclose campaign contributions to his U.S. Senate campaign.
The complaint, filed by the Campaign Legal Center, involved Greitens using his gubernatorial campaign fund to spend money on his Senate race
The allegations focused on changes made to his website before he launched his Senate bid, payments from his gubernatorial campaign to a consulting firm working on the Senate race and payments to companies for media services.
The Missouri Ethics Commission investigation found that there were no improper payments.
“It was clear from the beginning no wrongdoing ever took place,” said Dylan Johnson, Greitens campaign manager. “The truth came out today and Governor Greitens has once again defeated the woke, radical liberals, RINOs and the weak political establishment.”
Adav Noti, the Campaign Legal Center’s vice president, criticized the commission’s ruling, saying they appeared to just take Greitens word that he didn’t break the rules.
“The decision is deeply questionable,” Noti said. “Essentially the ethics commission said, ‘Well, he said he didn’t do it, so we’re going to dismiss the complaint.’”
The Missouri complaint was one of two the Campaign Legal Center lodged against Greitens. The other was with the Federal Elections Commission.
The ethics commission found that Greitens has similar licensing agreements for his gubernatorial and senate campaign websites. The commission said he ended the license with his gubernatorial campaign in order to provide it to his senate campaign. That’s why he reported an $18,000 in-kind contribution to his website on his April 2021 finance report. Under that agreement, they said, there was no need for his gubernatorial campaign to report an in-kind contribution to his senate campaign.
Still, Elizabeth Ziegler, the executive director of the Ethics Commission, didn’t appear to recommend Greitens’ licensing method.
“The Commission’s current action should not be interpreted as the Commission’s advisement to use such a licensing agreement under Missouri campaign finance laws,” she wrote.
The commission also found that two payments that Greitens made in January 2021 — one for $47,222.31 for digital media and one for $7,500 for media services — were late payments for services provided in 2020.
Payments to his campaign consultant in January and April 2021 were connected to his potential future gubernatorial campaign for “updating and maintaining social media assets owned or used by GFM (Greitens for Missouri); drafting communications for releases; strategic planning for potential state campaign, consult and manage GFM related media appearances,” according to the commission.
Greitens is currently the front-runner in the Republican primary to replace U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt. He resigned from office in 2018 to avoid impeachment amid accusations of sexual assault and campaign finance violations.
The Missouri Ethics Commission fined Greitens $178,000 for campaign finance violations in 2020. He agreed to pay $38,000 and have the rest of the money forgiven so long as he did not commit any new campaign finance violations.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 3:18 PM.