Missouri prosecutor denies ‘witch hunt’ in Greitens case

St. Louis’s top prosecutor is pushing back against Gov. Eric Greitens’ past statements that the charges she initially filed against him were part of a coordinated “witch hunt.”

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner announces Wednesday that she’s dropping the computer tampering charge against Greitens, who is resigning on Friday. A special prosecutor is weighing whether to refile another criminal charge against him.

Gardner says she made the agreement to dismiss the computer charge after conversations with Greitens’ attorneys. She says there was enough evidence to bring the charge but that if he were convicted, it’s unlikely Greitens would have served any jail time due to his status as a first-time offender.

As for Greitens’ allegations of a witch hunt, Gardner says she rejects his “shameful personal attacks” and “dangerous and false rhetoric about the criminal justice system and the rule of law.”

Greitens, 44, the state’s first Jewish governor, is a former Navy SEAL and Rhodes scholar. Prosecutors earlier this month dropped a charge stemming from an extramarital affair that he photographed a partially nude woman without her consent, but he still faces charges that he illegally created a political donor list from a separate veterans charity that he founded.

He maintains his insistence that he is the victim of a vague conspiracy to oust him, although state Republicans have joined in calls for him to step down.

— AP and JTA