Eric Robert Greitens (/ˈɡraɪtənz/ GRY-tənz;[2] born April 10, 1974) is an American businessman, author, former politician and former Navy SEAL, who served as the 56th governor of Missouri from January 2017 until June 2018, when he resigned that month amid allegations of sexual assault and campaign finance impropriety.

Born and raised in St. Louis, Greitens graduated from Duke University in 1996 and received a doctorate in 2000 from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, as a Rhodes scholar.

[34] Appointed by President George W. Bush, Greitens developed a program to get architecture and engineering students involved in rebuilding efforts in the South after Hurricane Katrina.

[47][48][50] The Associated Press reported in March 2018 that Greitens had used the charity's email account to arrange political meetings about his gubernatorial campaign, which is prohibited by federal tax law.

He said he had been raised in the tradition of Harry Truman and had been recruited as a Democratic candidate for Congress, but was pushed rightward after seeing the Department of Veterans Affairs fail to help many of his brothers in arms.

[74] Greitens won the August 2 Republican primary with 236,250 votes (34.6%) to businessman John Brunner's 169,425 (24.8%), Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder's 141,498 (20.7%), and former Speaker Catherine Hanaway's 136,350 (19.9%).

[84] He initially opposed public funding or tax credits for construction of the Centene Stadium in St. Louis on land owned by the Missouri Department of Transportation,[85] but later said he was "willing to work with" investors.

[90] Greitens supported the Missouri Steel Mill Bill, legislation that allowed utility regulators to approve lower electricity rates for industrial companies using large amounts of energy.

[119] Greitens was widely praised for calling attention to the epidemic, but received some criticism from state legislators who considered the order an abuse of executive power.

The Kansas City Star reported that Greitens also started filling vacancies on the medical licensing board with physicians who were "willing to get tough on colleagues who contribute to the opioid crisis.

Before the verdict, Greitens—who was openly critical of his predecessor Jay Nixon's response to the Ferguson unrest—preemptively activated the Missouri National Guard and scheduled 12-hour shifts for the St. Louis municipal police, in anticipation of civil unrest.

[132][133][134] In December 2017, Greitens commuted the life prison sentence of Judy Henderson, who had been jailed for 35 years after being convicted of the July 1981 robbery-murder of jeweler Harry Klein.

[142][143] In April 2018, Greitens signed into law legislation allowing those in the Missouri National Guard and the armed forces reserves to deduct their military income from their state taxes.

The lawsuit challenged a 2012 decision by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to deny the Columbia church a grant to replace the gravel on its playground with softer, safer material.

[163] On January 10, 2018, ahead of an investigative report released by St. Louis CBS affiliate KMOV the same evening, Greitens publicly disclosed that he had engaged in an extramarital affair with his hairstylist, identified only as "K.S.

"[165] KMOV played a recording made by the hairstylist's then-husband in which she said that Greitens had invited her to his home, where she consented to having her hands taped to exercise rings above her head while she was undressed, after which she was blindfolded.

"[167] The woman tried to leave, but reported to a Special Investigative Committee on Oversight of the Missouri House of Representatives that Greitens pulled her into a "bear hug", "so that she was now lying on the basement floor, crying.

[186] On April 11, 2018, a Special Investigative Committee (SIC) of the Missouri House of Representatives released an initial 24-page report detailing allegations, deemed "credible", against Greitens by the hairstylist with whom he had had an affair.

[188][189] In a four-page report issued on April 30, 2018, the SIC chair, Republican Representative Jay Barnes, said it found that the Greitens defense claims that the woman's testimony was inconsistent were groundless.

[201] In June 2018, St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Mullen appointed Gerard Carmody as special prosecutor to investigate alleged misconduct by Tisaby.

[217] In December 2017, Democrats accused Greitens and senior members of his staff of subverting Missouri's open records laws after the Kansas City Star reported that they used Confide, a messaging app that erases texts after they have been read, on their personal phones.

[222] In late December 2018, two attorneys sued, claiming that use of such "self-immolating" apps by elected officials and government employees violates Missouri's public records laws.

Beetem also ruled that as a private citizen, St. Louis attorney Ben Sansone lacked standing to sue Greitens over alleged Sunshine Law violations.

[226] Two days later, the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office indicted Greitens on a felony charge for tampering with a computer in taking email and donor lists from The Mission Continues for fundraising purposes.

"[229] In May 2018, Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson announced he would not file any additional charges against Greitens, as suggested by Hawley, related to how his gubernatorial campaign reported the receipt of a charity donor list used for political fundraising.

The two outside groups were LG PAC and A New Missouri; the former ran campaign ads that praised Greitens and attacking his opponents, while the latter paid for an opinion poll.

[233] Greitens was endorsed by former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, and Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, the latter joining his campaign as a national chair.

[234] Many Republican officials, strategists, and donors maneuvered to stymie Greitens's attempted comeback, believing that the scandal surrounding his resignation as governor, his extramarital affair, and the sexual assault accusation against him would make him a weak general election candidate and lead to the loss of the Senate seat to a Democrat.

"[242][243] In June 2022, Greitens released a campaign advertisement showing him bursting into a house, wielding a shotgun, and flanked by men dressed in full military gear carrying assault rifles.

[164] She accused him of coercing her to perform oral sex, undressing, kissing and touching her without her consent, and threatening to release a nude photo of her if she told anyone about their encounter.