Missouri’s Governor Was Already in Trouble. A New Felony Claim Adds to That.

In January, Gov. Eric Greitens of Missouri admitted to an extramarital affair with his former hairdresser. In February, he was indicted on a felony invasion-of-privacy charge. On Tuesday, the state attorney general plunged the governor even more deeply into political and legal jeopardy, saying Greitens may have committed a felony in using a charity’s donor list for political fundraising.

Josh Hawley, the Republican attorney general of Missouri, said his office had evidence that Greitens had illegally obtained a donor list from The Mission Continues, a veterans charity the governor founded.

“He did all of this without the permission of The Mission Continues,” Hawley said at a news conference in Jefferson City, Missouri. “If proven, these acts could amount to the unauthorized taking and use of property.”

But Hawley stopped short of filing charges against the governor, who is also a Republican, saying that his office does not have jurisdiction to do so. Instead, he referred the matter to Kimberly Gardner, the St. Louis circuit attorney, who could decide to file charges against Greitens.

Greitens, who has remained defiant in the face of widespread calls to resign, responded that the allegations were false and suggested that Gardner, a Democrat, was politically biased against him.

“Fortunately for Josh, he’s better at press conferences than the law,” the governor said in a statement. “Anyone who has set foot in a Missouri courtroom knows these allegations are ridiculous.”

Jim Martin, a lawyer for Greitens, added that there was “nothing close to wrongdoing” in the matter.

Questions about Greitens’ use of the nonprofit’s email list have been raised for months, and the governor has denied misusing it for his campaign. In 2016, The Associated Press reported that a member of Greitens’ campaign was in possession of a list of donors created by a Mission Continues employee.

Susan Ryan, a spokeswoman for Gardner, said in a statement that the prosecutor’s office was reviewing the evidence provided by the attorney general. “We can’t discuss any specifics at this time,” she said.

For most of this year, Greitens, a former Navy SEAL who was elected governor in 2016, has been the target of investigations, charges that he is unfit to serve as governor and calls for his resignation or impeachment, even from members of his own party.

His troubles burst into public view in January when a St. Louis television station broadcast a report that before he became governor, Greitens had an extramarital affair with a woman, had taken a nude or seminude photograph of her without her permission, and had threatened to make the image public if she told anyone about him.

In February, the governor was indicted by a grand jury in St. Louis on a felony charge of invasion of privacy relating to the photograph. Separately, a state House legislative committee, mostly made up of Republicans, is investigating Greitens and could begin a process to impeach him at any time. Hawley, who has called for Greitens to resign, said Tuesday that he had also referred evidence related to the Mission Continues donor list to the committee.

A report released by the House committee last week contained even more explosive allegations against Greitens. The woman who had a sexual relationship with him in 2015 told the committee that he hit her and she felt coerced into performing oral sex.

Greitens, a father of two, has insisted that the affair was consensual and that he and his wife, Sheena, have made peace with it.

Greitens faces trial on the invasion-of-privacy charge in St. Louis on May 14, and has said he views the hearing as an opportunity to clear his name. He could face up to four years in prison if convicted.

Missouri Republicans are concerned that the allegations swirling around the governor could hurt the party this fall in a competitive Senate race in which Hawley is hoping to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat.

Laura L’Esperance, a spokeswoman for The Mission Continues, said the group was cooperating with the attorney general’s investigation and did not provide or authorize the use of donor information for political or campaign purposes.

On Tuesday, Rep. Gail McCann Beatty, the minority floor leader in the House and a Democrat, called the attorney general’s announcement “more disturbing news about what’s going on with the governor.”

“It is time for him to resign,” she said. “Clearly he’s digging in and he’s just not going to step down. At this point the House needs to decide what the next action is that needs to be taken and moving toward getting the governor removed.”