Greitens files motion to dismiss lawsuit over Confide app

Gov. Eric Greitens filed a motion to dismiss on Feb. 16 over a lawsuit about the governor’s use of the Confide app.

ABC 17 previously reported that two St. Louis attorneys filed a lawsuit against the governor’s office claiming he was skirting open record laws.

The app, which is on the personal phones of the Republican governor and multiple staffers, automatically deletes text messages after they are read. Confide also prevents capturing texts via screenshot or screen recording.

“The problem is, that communication is shredded,” said Mark Pedroli, one of the attorneys who sued the governor over use of the app. “There’s no way for your honor or this court to know what these communications were about.”

In the motion to dismiss directed towards attorney Ben Sanson, Greitens’ attorneys said that Missouri law only requires that statutorily-defined “records” be retained.

The attorneys claim the petition written by Pedroli and Sansone contains no factual allegations that the communications that were deleted from the app were defined as “records.”

The attorneys believe the lawsuit should be dismissed because Sansone did not suffer any injury as a result of the alleged conduct and the claims are based on speculations.