Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens was indicted on Thursday, Feb. 23 amid allegations of sexual misconduct and blackmail. The charge follows the disclosure of an affair Greitens had in 2015. He was charged with first-degree felony of invasion of privacy.
The St. Louis grand jury’s indictment accused Greitens of photographing a nude or partially nude person without that person’s knowledge or consent. Greitens admitted to having the affair, however stated he had not committed any crimes. He added that the event was a “personal mistake” prior to him taking office and should not affect his role as governor.
The arraign comes weeks after news broke of Greten’s affair. A St. Louis television station had aired a report that claimed Greitens had taken a compromising photo of the woman he was having an affair with and threatened to release the photo if she revealed the relationship.
Sophomore Rachel Erickson thinks Greitens should be kicked out of office immediately, as his actions were not what she would hope for as a leader. Though she believes Missouri’s reputation will tarnish because of Greiten, she does not think the Republican party will lose power in the state.
“Well I obviously think it casts a major shadow on our political institutions and the validity of our voices for our voters. Basically, if the citizens of Missouri were able to elect someone who is literally being arrested while in office and refusing giving up power, I think it casts shadow on whether or not those voters are truly able to make informed decisions…” Erickson said. “[Greitens] should be kicked out of office immediately. There’s already an impeachment committee forming in the legislature, so removing him from office as soon as possible. Moving forward we need to be more careful about thoroughly examining all of our candidates before electing them to any high offices.”
 

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“What I currently know about the situation is that our governor took a picture… had an affair with his wife and took a picture of the woman he was sleeping with, naked and tied up, and then was threatening her if [she revealed the affair] he would release [the photo]. It’s only, I heard, right now, a misdemeanor, but he uploaded it to a computer so if [investigators] find that, it could actually turn out to be bigger and federal.” - Freshman Hayden Burka