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Politically Speaking: As Greitens awaits trial, his friends and foes seek to alter public opinion

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is in political limbo after being indicted for felony invasion of privacy charges.
Carolina Hidalgo I St. Louis Public Radio
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is in political limbo after being indicted for felony invasion of privacy charges.

On the latest edition of the Politically Speaking podcast, St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum, Jo Mannies and Rachel Lippmann round up this week’s legal and political news surrounding Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens.

This week’s episodes focuses on how the governor’s allies and adversaries are trying to alter public opinion in the run up to his felony invasion of privacy trial on May 14.

In particular, Greitens’ cadre of defense attorneys are asking sharp questions about the background and pay scale of people Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner brought in for the case. And Greitens’ political team have been disseminating op eds questioning Gardner’s judgment,including one from a former circuit attorney employee.

But others have been turning up the heat on the governor. Al Watkins, an attorney representing the ex-husband of Greitens’ former mistress, has disseminated a steady stream of information to the media painting the governor in an unfavorable light. And former Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Roy Templefiled an ethics complaintover how Greitens’ campaignreceived a fundraising list from the Mission Continues, a veterans charity that the governor founded before running for office.

Among the things discussed in the podcast:

  • How Greitens’ defense attorneys are questioning the background of a Michigan-based company that invested the governor’s case.
  • What Temple’s complaint means for the governor’s future — and whether the Missouri Ethics Commissionwill have enough membersto make a decision on the matter.
  • An update on a House committee looking into the governor’s indictment.


Rosenbaum also appeared Friday on St. Louis on the Air to talk about this week’s Greitens developments:

Follow Jason on Twitter:@jrosenbaum

Follow Jo on Twitter:@jmannies

Follow Rachel Twitter:@rlippmann

Music: "U, U, D, D, L, R, L, R, A, B, Select, Start" by Deftones

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Since entering the world of professional journalism in 2006, Jason Rosenbaum dove head first into the world of politics, policy and even rock and roll music. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Rosenbaum spent more than four years in the Missouri State Capitol writing for the Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri Lawyers Media and the St. Louis Beacon.
Jo Mannies has been covering Missouri politics and government for almost four decades, much of that time as a reporter and columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the first woman to cover St. Louis City Hall, was the newspaper’s second woman sportswriter in its history, and spent four years in the Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau. She joined the St. Louis Beacon in 2009. She has won several local, regional and national awards, and has covered every president since Jimmy Carter. She scared fellow first-graders in the late 1950s when she showed them how close Alaska was to Russia and met Richard M. Nixon when she was in high school. She graduated from Valparaiso University in northwest Indiana, and was the daughter of a high school basketball coach. She is married and has two grown children, both lawyers. She’s a history and movie buff, cultivates a massive flower garden, and bakes banana bread regularly for her colleagues.
Rachel Lippmann
Lippmann returned to her native St. Louis after spending two years covering state government in Lansing, Michigan. She earned her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and followed (though not directly) in Maria Altman's footsteps in Springfield, also earning her graduate degree in public affairs reporting. She's also done reporting stints in Detroit, Michigan and Austin, Texas. Rachel likes to fill her free time with good books, good friends, good food, and good baseball.