Content warning: descriptions of physical and sexual assault, child abuse.
Missouri’s former governor Eric Greitens has been accused by his ex-wife of physically assaulting her and their young son in a sworn affidavit as part of an ongoing child custody dispute. The affidavit describes an encounter in which he “knocked [her] down.” She also says he expressed “physical violence toward our children, such as cuffing our then-3-year-old son across the face at the dinner table in front of me and yanking him around by his hair.”
Greitens has, as you’d expect, denied the allegations, but this is also far from his first encounter with absolutely vile accusations made against him. We went through this back in 2018, when Greitens resigned in disgrace after being accused of sexual assault by another woman.
In 2018, Greitens was accused of sexual assault by his hairdresser, as well as taking nude photos without her consent and using them to blackmail her. The way Greitens and much of the media coverage framed the case at the time depicted the woman as the then-governor’s “mistress,” but it soon became clear that was not the case at all.
The unnamed woman said in court filings that she had a sexual and emotional interest in Greitens and went to his house, at his insistence, to explore those mutual feelings. (She says she suggested a coffee shop, but he didn’t want to meet in public, as he was campaigning at the time and both of them were married.) She says he then tied her up, blindfolded her, took off her clothes, took pictures of her, and coerced her into performing oral sex.
Greitens denied these acts—predictably calling them a “witch hunt” and blaming a George Soros-funded liberal conspiracy—but he did resign from his position as Missouri’s governor. However, he has apparently decided four years is enough of a cooling-off period to make his political comeback.
Last year, Missouri’s second-worst senator, Roy Blunt, announced he wouldn’t be running for reelection, and Greitens has become a frontrunner in the crowded race to replace him. Rather than assume Missourians have forgotten about his alleged vileness, he seems to be leaning into attracting voters who don’t care, fully hitching his wagon to Donald Trump. While Trump hasn’t officially endorsed anyone, he clearly adores Greitens, largely because of Greitens’ distaste for Mitch McConnell. Politico shared this strange and telling anecdote earlier this month:
The controversial former governor ran into a Trump ally in Orlando, Fla., who jokingly offered him tickets to a Trump-hosted private reception — but with a catch: He had to tweet out his opposition to the former president’s archnemesis, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
No problem, Greitens laughed: He’d already said he wouldn’t support McConnell as Republican leader if elected, and he didn’t mind saying it again. After firing off a tweet declaring “No More RINOs [Republicans in Name Only]. I’m not voting for Mitch McConnell,” Greitens snapped up a pair of tickets and headed into Trump’s closed-door event.
A lot of Missouri Republicans have called for Greitens to drop out of the race, either because they feel threatened by the competition in the field of Terrible Men (like Mark McCloskey, who became famous for brandishing a gun at protesters and then rode that wave of awful publicity into the Senate race) or because they worry that Greitens could probably win the primary but is so awful he could actually lose the general election to a Democrat.
“Eric Greitens, if he gets nominated, it’s the only way we can lose the general election for Senate in Missouri, McCloskey told Politico. And Doug Heye, a Washington-based Republican strategist, told the AP: “It is a very safe Republican seat unless Eric Greitens wins the primary, and then it’s in play.” Even Josh Hawley has condemned Greitens, putting Trump in the position of having to choose between two of Missouri’s worst men.
Greitens responded by going on Steve Bannon’s podcast and accusing Hawley and Mitch McConnell of conspiring with his ex-wife to smear him. Hawley also called for Greitens to resign in 2018, when he was the state’s Attorney General and running for his current Senate seat. At the time, Democrats were trying to paint him as an ally to Greitens, so that was likely less about actual principles than it was self-preservation.
As for Sheena Greitens, she posted a simple and direct statement to social media on Tuesday, saying, “I stand by my sworn statements.” She did not address her ex-husband’s accusations of working with “political operatives” (that’s definitely for the best) but did say she hadn’t discussed her affidavit with anyone besides her lawyers and her immediate family.
“My only interest is what’s best for my two children, and for the last four years, I have gone to great lengths to keep these family matters private to protect them,” she wrote. “I am not interested in litigating this matter anywhere other than the courtroom. At the appropriate time in the legal process, I will provide whatever evidence and documentation the court requests, including testimony under oath.”
(image: Michael Thomas/ Getty Images)
