JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. _ A Missouri House panel investigating Gov. Eric Greitens' extramarital affair and its accompanying legal woes will hold its first hearing Tuesday.
The initial meeting of the seven-member committee, which was approved on a unanimous vote of the Legislature's lower chamber last week, is expected to be open to the public.
But, following that, discussions that could determine whether Greitens is impeached and removed from office could be closed until the committee finishes its work within its 40 allotted days.
The formation of the panel was triggered by Greitens' arrest in St. Louis on Feb. 22 on a felony invasion of privacy charge for taking a picture of his hairdresser who was at least partially nude in such a way that the picture could be seen on a computer.
As part of the rules approved by the full House, commission chairman Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, said the panel can close meetings to the public when taking testimony from witnesses.
"If we are taking witness testimony, the hearing is going to be closed," Barnes told his colleagues last week.
If the House were to vote to impeach the governor, the Missouri Constitution requires the Senate to select seven judges to try the case against him that would lead to his removal from office.
Barnes has cautioned that the committee was not formed specifically to impeach Greitens, a Republican who took office in 2016.
"The task of this committee is to conduct a fair, thorough and timely investigation, and to do so without any pre-ordained results," Barnes said.
The panel, which includes three lawyers and two former law enforcement officers, also are barred from discussing the investigation.
In an elevator with a reporter Monday, Barnes would not say when or where the first meeting of the committee would occur.
"I cannot answer that," he said repeatedly.
A notice for the meeting of the Special Committee on Investigative Oversight was later posted on the House website.
