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Covering state lawmakers, bills, and policy emerging from Jefferson City.

Politically Speaking: 4 huge events that diminished Greitens’ political standing

Attorney Ed Dowd walks out of a St. Louis courthouse Thursday. A judge ruled that Greitens' felony invasion of privacy trial would continue.
File photo I Carolina Hidalgo I St. Louis Public Radio
Attorney Ed Dowd walks out of a St. Louis courthouse Thursday. A judge ruled that Greitens' felony invasion of privacy trial would continue.

Updated on April 20 at 7:30 p.m. after St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner charged Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens with a felony  On the latest edition of Politically Speaking, St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum, Jo Mannies and Rachel Lippmann break down all the developments in the ongoing saga around Gov. Eric Greitens.

This week was particularly newsworthy. After last week’s release of an explosive House report that led to widespread calls for Greitens to resign, at least four events ended up placing Greitens’ political career on virtual life support. (We uploaded a new version of the show after Greitens was indicted last Friday for felony computer data tampering.)

Those events include:

  • Attorney General Josh Hawley’s announcement that evidence existed for the St. Louis circuit attorney to charge Greitens with a felony for allegedly illegally obtaining a fundraising list from The Mission Continues. That move set off an unprecedented war of words between the two GOP statewide officials.
  • House Speaker Todd Richardson and Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard called on Greitens to resign. That made impeachment proceedings a virtual certainty, because Richardson commands bipartisan respect among House members.
  • A judge's ruling allowed Greitens’ criminal trial for felony invasion of privacy to continue. Greitens’ attorneys wanted the case dismissed over how St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner turned over evidence.
  • On late Friday, Gardner charged Greitens with felony computer tampering.


Rosenbaum and Washington University law professor Peter Joy were also a guests Friday on St. Louis on the Air:

Follow Jason on Twitter:@jrosenbaum

Follow Jo on Twitter:@jmannies

Follow Rachel Twitter:@rlippmann

Music:“Ignoramus” by American Wrestlers

Copyright 2018 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. Since moving to St. Louis in 2010, Rosenbaum's work appeared in Missouri Lawyers Media, the St. Louis Business Journal and the Riverfront Times' music section. He also served on staff at the St. Louis Beacon as a politics reporter. Rosenbaum lives in Richmond Heights with with his wife Lauren and their two sons.
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.
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.