Missouri Governor Eric Greitens has announced his resignation from his position amid a scandal sparked by allegations that he previously had an affair that was at times violent and non-consensual.
Mr Greitens — a Republican who has attempted to cultivate a public persona as a family man — had resisted resignation previously, even though there was bipartisan support in the state for him to do so, and even though some politicians had discussed the possibility of impeachment.
The affair became public in January, just after Mr Greiten delivered his annual state of the state address on January 10. At that time, a St Louis television station aired a recording of a woman speaking with her then-husband about the affair, telling him that Mr Greitens had threatened to release a compromising photograph of her if she told anyone about the affair.
Mr Greitens, who is a father of two, asked Missourians for forgiveness after the accusations were made public, but has denied committing any crime.
“This was a deeply personal mistake,” Mr Greitens wrote in a joint statement alongside his wife, Sheena. “Eric took responsibility, and we death with this together honestly and privately.”
A subsequent report from the Missouri House legislative committee detailed a much different story from that pushed by the Greitens.
In that report, which relied on an account from the woman, Mr Greitens was said to have invited his accuser to his home to work out together, and that he then blindfolded her and taped her hands to pull-up rings. He is then said to have began kissing her, before tearing off her shirt and pulling her pants down. His accuser alleges that Mr Greitens then took a photo of her with his phone.
The report also alleges that he forced her to perform oral sex on him. They continued to have sexual encounters during a period of months following the initial encounter in 2015, the woman said.
Mr Greitens is currently facing charges for alleged tampering with computer data. Prosecutors say that he had illegally obtained a donor list from a veteran’s charity he founded, and used that information during his 2016 campaign.
A separate felony charge for invasion-of-privacy against Mr Greitens was dropped just before it went to trial in May. Those charges had stemmed from the accusations from the woman, who has claimed he threatened to use the cellphone image against her if she went public with accusations of an affair.
