A woman is claiming that Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens physically abused her during multiple nonconsensual sexual encounters. The woman’s graphic testimony was included in a newly released report by a House investigatory committee.
According to CBS News, the five Republicans and two Democrats on the state committee found the alleged victim’s story to be credible. The woman detailed a series of incidents in which Greitens allegedly slapped, grabbed, shoved, and abused her in 2015, right around the time he was preparing to run for office. The governor is also accused of taking nude photos of the woman without her consent, while she was blindfolded and tied up in his basement. According the report, Greitens then threatened to release the images if she ever spoke about it.
“You’re not going to mention my name. Don’t even mention my name to anybody at all, because if you do, I’m going to take these pictures, and I’m going to put them everywhere I can,” he allegedly said, according to the woman’s testimony. “They are going to be everywhere, and then everyone will know what a little whore you are.”
The woman said she began to cry “uncontrollably” after Greitens had threatened to blackmail her and she felt coerced into oral sex.
“It’s a hard question because I did it—it felt like consent, but, no, I didn’t want to do it,” she said. “Coerced, maybe. I felt as though that would allow me to leave. That’s what he wanted—I felt that’s what he wanted. [I] didn’t feel necessarily able to leave without performing oral sex.”
Greitens previously denied he had ever blackmailed, threatened, or physically abused the woman. He also described their relationship as as a consensual extramarital affair.
“This is a political witch hunt” the governor said after the report was released. “This is exactly like what's happening with the witch hunts in Washington, D.C.”
The House investigatory committee launched the investigation last month, shortly after Greitens had been indicted on a felony invasion-of-privacy charge for allegedly taking nonconsensual nude photo of the woman and transmitting it in a way that could be accessed by a computer.
CBS News reports the case will go to trial May 14.
