Committee continues meetings into Greitens criminal case

The Missouri House Special Investigative Committee on Oversight met again Monday at the Jefferson City Police Department, as the independent investigation into felony allegations against Gov. Eric Greitens continues.

As they have in previous meetings, members of the committee, including Chairman Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, answered no questions outside the station as they came and left the building.

Monday's meeting lasted about an hour.

Barnes has told reporters there will be a report written when the committee's work is finished, but until then, committee members will not discuss their work publicly.

House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, created the committee earlier this month to investigate the situation surrounding a St. Louis grand jury's indictment of Greitens for felony invasion of privacy involving accusations that he photographed a woman with whom he was having an affair without her permission, while she was at least partially nude, in March 2015 - before he launched his campaign for governor.

But the House committee's work is on a parallel path - it isn't dependent on the criminal case against the governor but could hear from many of the same witnesses.

That's why, Barnes told colleagues, the committee wants to call many witnesses in closed sessions, believing the best way to get accurate information is to close those hearings so other potential witnesses don't know what previous witnesses said.