Lawyer asks to question Greitens, others who used secretive Confide app
The attorney seeking to uncover what former Gov. Eric Greitens discussed with his staff on the message-destroying app Confide has asked a judge to order a group to submit to questioning.
On May 31, Cole Circuit Judge Jon Beetem ordered the governor’s office to turn over the list of all staffers who used or downloaded Confide. In June, after Greitens resigned as governor, a list of 20 staffers who used the app was turned over to the court. Pedroli refers to this list of individuals, which includes Greitens, as the Confide 20.
Since then, Pedroli said he has collected evidence from “multiple sources” that the governor’s office “concealed at least seven” former staff members “who had downloaded and/or used Confide.
Screenshots of text messages sent between two former deputy legislative directors, Brad Green and Jeff Earl, referenced documents sent on Confide. Green and Earl were not included in the first list.
On Wednesday, Pedroli filed a request for sanctions against the former governor and his staff, saying that they should be punished for not complying with the previous order.
In the motion for sanctions, Pedroli requested the judge to order several people to submit to questioning: Greitens, former custodian of records Michelle Hallford, former communications director Parker Briden, general counsel Lucinda Luetkemeyer, special counsel Sarah Madden, chief of staff Mike Roche, deputy chief of staff Nick Maddux and policy director Will Scharf, as well as anyone left out of the original list of 20, “including but not limited to Jeffery Earl and Brad Green.”
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mark Pedroli filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Sunshine Project after a records request for the messages sent on the app was unsuccessful.
Under the Sunshine Act, discussion of policy or official business is public policy and must be retained by the governor’s office. Pedroli claims Greitens and his staff purposefully used the app to undermine the open records law.
