Greitens may be gone but the need for accountability persists

When Eric Greitens announced his resignation as Missouri governor on May 29, amid ethics scandals including allegations of sexual misconduct and campaign finance violations, it was a good day for accountability in government. While Greitens has only himself to blame for his personal failings, his political corruption was aided by a number of accomplices.

In fact, the operatives and organizations that allowed donors to support Greitens financially while remaining secret are still involved in politics and using similar tactics.

If Missouri and other states are to prevent these kinds of violations going forward, there now needs to be accountability for the dark money groups behind the schemes that boosted Greitens’ political ambitions. For instance, American Policy Coalition, the nonprofit that funneled nearly $2 million to the Greitens campaign via a federal super PAC, has continued to funnel anonymously-sourced money into politics. Since the beginning of 2017, it has contributed $663,800 to four different federal super PACs, including two that spent money on the same South Carolina special election. In 2017, American Policy Coalition also ran web ads boosting Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, and in 2018 waded into a local school funding ballot issue in Beachwood, Ohio with a video distributed on Facebook.

Also, this year Freedom Frontier — the nonprofit that completely funded a super PAC that spent $4 million on ads attacking Greitens’ opponents — contributed more than $600,000 to a federal super PAC called Ohio Conservatives for a Change that backed Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s campaign in the GOP gubernatorial primary. Freedom Frontier also hosted a website called Ohio Election Integrity that praised Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, who ran for governor before dropping out to join DeWine’s ticket as a candidate for lieutenant governor, saying, “Thank you, Secretary of State Jon Husted. Keeping Ohio’s elections secure.”

Others involved with the corrupt effort to anonymously boost the Greitens campaign are still actively involved in politics. My organization — CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington — discovered that Nick Ayers, Greitens consultant and current chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, was also paid by Freedom Frontier.

Given the wide range of abuses in Missouri and elsewhere by these dark money players, CREW has called for multiple investigations into alleged violations of campaign finance and tax law. In March, we filed complaints against American Policy Coalition and Freedom Frontier with the Internal Revenue Service for failing to file their tax returns, documents that would have provided the public with critical information about their activities during the 2016 election cycle. This June, following Greitens’ resignation, CREW filed a separate complaint with the Federal Election Commission against American Policy Coalition and Freedom Frontier, as well as the super PACs they funded, for violations of federal law stemming from their scheme to help the Greitens campaign conceal its financial supporters from the voting public.

In early July, Republican state Rep. Jay Barnes, who chaired the special investigative committee that dug into Greitens’ scandals, filed a complaint with the Missouri Ethics Commission, alleging that the Greitens campaign “engaged in activity purposefully designed to conceal donor identities.” Citing evidence gathered during the committee’s investigation, the Barnes complaint revealed conversations among campaign staffers about routing donors to nonprofit groups in order keep them secret. In response, CREW amended its original FEC complaint to include the new information. So, while the legislative investigation closed following Greitens’ resignation, efforts to enforce the law continue.

Greitens’ various ethics scandals led to a kitchen sink response from elected leaders throughout the state, including investigations by the General Assembly, the St. Louis circuit attorney and others. A similar approach is needed in order to ensure that Freedom Frontier, American Policy Coalition and groups like them no longer allow anonymous monied-interests to maintain a hold over Missouri’s governor’s mansion and other elected offices. Hopefully, other state leaders in Missouri will follow Barnes’ lead and hold these groups responsible for potential violations of state law as well.