How Gov. Greitens' Downfall Unfolded

First came a public admission from Gov. Eric Greitens of Missouri that he had been unfaithful to his wife. What followed was a dizzying series of events: calls for his resignation, two felony charges, the release of a report filled with graphic and troubling details and a threat of impeachment.

Then on Tuesday, Greitens abruptly announced he would step down.

So how did a governor’s affair lead to political chaos, a legal battle in Missouri and finally his resignation? Here is a primer on what unfolded in Missouri.

A: Greitens, 44, is a first-term governor who swept into office in January 2017 as a political outsider with a background that made fellow Republicans gush. He was a decorated Navy SEAL who served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, a Rhodes scholar, a Bronze Star recipient. He is married, the father of two. He created The Mission Continues, a nonprofit group that aids veterans. National Review once described his resume as “astonishing, almost too-good-to-be-true.”

But when Greitens turned up in Jefferson City, the state’s capital, his outsider status also hurt him. Some people viewed him as an ambitious hotshot who saw the governor’s office as a launchpad to somewhere better, maybe even the White House. His travel to other states fueled that speculation. He soon clashed with legislators, even those from his own party — something that has come back to haunt him now that he needs a base of support to lean on.

A: The governor’s problems began early this year when a St. Louis television station broadcast an audio recording it had obtained from the former husband of a woman who had an affair with Greitens in 2015, before he became governor. The woman’s former husband had secretly recorded her discussing the sexual encounters — and making an explosive accusation that Greitens had taken an explicit photograph of her without her permission and had threatened to make the image public if she told anyone about him.

In February, prosecutors charged Greitens with invasion of privacy, a felony in Missouri, in connection with the photograph.

The woman, who worked as a hairdresser and had cut Greitens’ hair, has not been publicly identified and has told officials that she did not wish to share her story with law enforcement or the public; she has repeatedly turned down requests for interviews.

Subpoenaed to testify under oath before a state legislative committee investigating the governor, the woman said that she went to Greitens’ home on his invitation one morning, where he suggested that they work out together; then he blindfolded her, taped her hands to pullup rings and began kissing her. He then tore off her shirt, pulled down her pants and took a picture of her with his cellphone, she said.

But in mid-May, with a jury already being picked for a trial that was scheduled to begin in a matter of days, prosecutors suddenly dropped the invasion-of-privacy case against the governor. They said they had no choice but to drop the case because the prosecutor, Kimberly Gardner, was being called as a witness by Greitens’ defense team.

A week later, a St. Louis judge appointed a special prosecutor, Jean Peters Baker, to decide whether to refile the charge, according to The Associated Press. On Tuesday, Baker said that the investigation remains open and “no deals were made by my office.”

Legal experts have said the case had other problems all along — not least that the prosecutors had not come up with the photo that was said to be at the center of the case, despite searches of the governor’s phone.

A: The governor had also faced a second, unrelated felony charge. Last month, Greitens was accused of illegally obtaining a donor list from a charity he founded and using it to raise money for his 2016 campaign. Gardner, the circuit attorney in St. Louis, charged him with one count of tampering with computer data; Greitens’ lawyer called the charge “absurd.” Shortly after the governor announced his resignation, Gardner said in a statement that she had “reached a fair and just resolution” of the charge against Greitens, and that details would be announced Wednesday.

Then there was the threat of impeachment in a state Capitol where both chambers are dominated by Republicans; lawmakers had convened a special session earlier this month.

In Missouri, leaders are subject to impeachment for a broad array of failings — “crime, misconduct, habitual drunkenness, willful neglect of duty, corruption in office, incompetency, or any offense involving moral turpitude or oppression in office.”

If articles of impeachment were to be filed, the full House would then vote on whether to impeach the governor; if a majority voted in favor of impeachment, the case would then go to the Senate, where seven judges would conduct a trial.

Five of the seven judges must vote in favor of impeachment for the governor to be removed from office — an action that has never before been taken in Missouri.

A: Pretty much everybody in Missouri politics.

After the release of the 24-page report from the legislative committee, dozens of legislators and other elected officials — Republican and Democrat — reiterated calls for Greitens to step down. They included Josh Hawley, the attorney general of Missouri and a Republican; Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat; Mike Kehoe, the Senate majority leader; and even financial backers like David Humphreys, a businessman whose family was one of Greitens’ top donors, giving him more than $2 million during his run for governor.

A: Greitens acknowledged having a consensual extramarital affair, issuing a statement — together with his wife, Sheena — shortly after delivering his State of the State address in January.

He had portrayed the issue as a personal matter, not a legal violation, and his lawyers have pushed back vehemently against suggestions of criminal behavior. Greitens has dismissed the legislative committee’s report, which quoted extensively from the woman he had a relationship with, as “tabloid trash.” He called the investigation into his behavior a “political witch hunt.”

A: Before his resignation, political strategists and elected officials said there appeared few paths ahead in politics for Greitens.

“Do you go somewhere after this?” John Hancock, a political strategist and former chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, said. “I don’t know. I just can’t see it.”