Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R) abused his ex-wife and children, blackmailed his ex-wife and mistress, and publicly lied about his resignation as governor in 2018, according to claims made in a sworn affidavit.
Greitens’ ex-wife, Sheena Greitens, filed the affidavit in a Missouri state court on Monday in an ongoing child custody battle with the former governor, according to The Associated Press. The couple filed for divorce in 2020 and Sheena has since moved to Austin, Texas, where she works as a public affairs professor at the University of Texas.
Sheena testified under oath that her ex-husband, who is a GOP candidate running to replace retiring Sen. Roy Blunt (R), began abusing and threatening her and others, including his kids, prior to his resignation in 2018 as his political career appeared to implode in scandal.
“In early June 2018, I became afraid for my safety and that of our children at our home, which was fairly isolated, due to Eric’s unstable and coercive behavior,” Sheena wrote in a filing submitted to Boone County Circuit Court, according to The Washington Post. “This behavior included physical violence toward our children, such as cuffing our then three-year-old son across the face at the dinner table in front of me and yanking him around by the hair.”
In one incident, Eric allegedly knocked down his then-wife and confiscated her keys, wallet, and phone, later telling his mother-in-law that “he did so to prevent me from doing anything that might damage his political career,” Sheena wrote.
Sheena said one of their children came home after visiting his father in November 2019 “with a swollen face, bleeding gums, and a loose tooth.”
“He said Dad had hit him; however, Eric said they were roughhousing and it had been an accident,” Sheena wrote.
The former governor denied the allegations in a statement Monday, suggesting his ex-wife is unstable and being taken advantage of by political operatives to hurt his campaign.
“Being a father is the joy of my life and my single most important responsibility. I will continue to love and care for my beautiful sons with all of my being, and that includes fighting for the truth and against completely fabricated, baseless allegations,” the ex-governor said. “I am seeking full custody of my sons, and for their sake, I will continue to pray for their mother and hope that she gets the help that she needs. I understand that while I was with my boys last week, she was in Washington D.C. Sadly, political operatives and the liberal media peddle in lies. However, I have faith, and I know that ultimately truth will always prevail.”
Eric resigned as Missouri governor in 2018 after being indicted on an invasion-of-privacy charge in February of that year. He was accused of taking a compromising photo of his hairstylist during a 2015 affair in which she appeared blindfolded and her hands bound. The hairstylist later claimed he took the photo and threatened to release it should she reveal the affair.
Eric admitted to the affair, though denied taking the photo. Prosecutors later dropped the invasion-of-privacy charge after the lead prosecutor was indicted for lying under oath, according to the Post.
Sheena claimed that Eric admitted to her that he did take the photo and lied about it to the public. He told her that she would be exposed to “legal jeopardy if I ever disclosed that fact to anyone, even family members or a therapist.”
Sheena wrote in the indictment that her ex-husband’s behavior grew increasingly erratic and alarming after February 2018. “[M]ultiple people other than myself were worried enough to intervene to limit Eric’s access to firearms” on three separate occasions, she said. She claimed that she began sleeping in their children’s room for their protection, according to the AP.
Sheena said that Eric made threats and tried to force her to delete emails to her therapist detailing his behavior, berating her as a “hateful, disgusting, nasty, vicious … lying b****” in a phone call and accusing her of leaking to reporters.
In another incident, as she was trying to fly with their children to her parents’ house, the ex-governor “threatened to come to the airport and have me arrested for kidnapping and child abuse, saying that because of his authority as a former governor who had supported law enforcement, the police would support him and not believe me,” Sheena wrote.