GOP governor denies he blackmailed his mistress with revenge porn

A high-profile Republican governor denied claims Wednesday that he tied up and blindfolded his hairdresser before taking a picture of her naked and threatening blackmail.

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, a rising star in the GOP, admitted the affair but denied the allegations of blackmail.

The explosive claims were made by the alleged victim to her then-husband in March 2015, shortly after the affair began. The woman, who has not been named, did not know her husband was recording the conversation.

Though the woman has not spoken on the record, the secret recording was shared by her husband with local TV station KMOV Wednesday.

Greitens, 43, a Rhodes Scholar and a former Navy SEAL, admitted the affair hours after delivering his State of the State address Wednesday, but his lawyer denied the more salacious — and potentially criminal — accusations.

“There is no 'blackmail' and that claim is false,” attorney James Bennett said in a statement posted on Twitter.

• The affair began in March 2015 and continued for some months according to KMOV. During their first encounter at Greitens’ house, the governor invited the woman downstairs where he “used some sort of tape, I don't what it was, and taped my hands to these rings and then put a blindfold on me.”
• Greitens allegedly took a picture of the woman. “He stepped back, I saw a flash through the blindfold and he said: ‘You're never going to mention my name, otherwise there will be pictures of me everywhere.’”
• The woman said Greitens subsequently apologized and said he had deleted the picture.
• Asked about his motivation for speaking out almost three years after first being told, the husband said he was prompted to do so after being contacted by law enforcement and members of the media. “Something happened, churned this, and had people hounding me, even leaving a voicemail on my daughter's phone — when that happened, everything changed,” he said.
• In a joint statement with his wife Sheena, Greitens admitted the affair, calling it a “deeply personal mistake” but said the family has dealt with it.

• The Democrat-turned-Republican was elected governor in Nov. 2016, having run a campaign that focused heavily on his status as a family man. Announcing his campaign for governor, Greitens said: “I'm Eric Greitens, I'm a Navy SEAL, native Missourian and most importantly, a proud husband and father."
• A profile in St. Louis Magazine said Greitens has harbored presidential ambitions since a young age, and he was seen as a rising star inside the Republican party given his stellar resume. A former Navy SEAL, he attended Duke University on scholarship and became a Rhodes scholar at Oxford where he obtained his PhD in Refugee Studies. He is also a published author and worked as a White House Fellow during the administration of George W. Bush.

• Sheena Greitens, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Missouri, issued a separate statement Wednesday: “We have a loving marriage and an awesome family; anything beyond that is between us and God. I want the media and those who wish to peddle gossip to stay away from me and my children.”