ST. LOUIS _ Outgoing Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens' legal team on Friday won a delay in turning over records from a nonprofit dark-money group to a state House committee.
Greitens' lawyers moved to stop the court-ordered release of records, arguing that his resignation, which took effect at 5 p.m. Friday, should render the records irrelevant to state legislators who want to see them.
In response, a Cole County judge granted a stay of an earlier order mandating release of the records, to allow Greitens' team to make its case for keeping them closed. No hearing date was immediately set.
The nonprofit, called A New Missouri, is headed by Greitens' former campaign manager and has been active in supporting the administration's issues.
Because of its nonprofit status, the group doesn't have to publicly reveal its financial and other information the way a regular PAC would. That's led to criticism that Greitens and his allies were using the nonprofit to hide their political donations and activities from public view.
A legislative committee that's been investigating those and other issues related to Greitens wanted records from A New Missouri to determine whether there was potentially illegal coordination between it and Greitens' campaign fund.
The Cole County judge on Tuesday ordered the nonprofit to turn over the records. Hours later, Greitens announced his resignation as governor, effective Friday.
Catherine Hanaway, an attorney with Greitens' defense team, noted that the committee's charge was to investigate issues related to "Governor Eric R. Greitens" _ a title Greitens has relinquished.
His resignation, she said, "makes the whole investigation moot."
The judge's original order called for the records to be produced for the committee by 5 p.m. Friday. The order doesn't include information about donors' identities.
