Missouri governor candidate addresses $1.9M donation
The republican candidate for Missouri governor hosted a town hall at the Missouri Chamber of Commerce in Jefferson City Friday night.
Eric Greitens has received two of the largest single donations in Missouri’s political history. ABC 17 News reported in July when Greitens received a $1.9 million donation from the Washington D.C-based group SEALs for Truth. At the time the July 18 contribution marked the largest single donation in state history.
The group said its donors are other Navy SEALs, but federal election records show just one donor to the group. That donor is listed as another obscure group, called American Policy Coalition. It has no registered information with the Federal Elections Commission.
ABC 17 News was at Friday’s town hall and later asked Greitens, who has made transparency and ethics a big part of his campaign, about the donor.
“You should reach out to Nick Britt, the treasurer, if you have any questions at all about the filing. Nick was a Navy SEAL, he went through Navy SEAL training with me, and I’m sure he’d be happy to talk with you,” Greitens said.
ABC 17 News checked and Nicholas Britt is listed as the treasurer. However, Britt is not listed as a donor of the group. Press releases from the group have no name, and no one has ever answered the phone number listed alongside Britt’s founding application for SEALs for Truth.
“What I can tell you is I’m really proud of all the support that we have from the naval special warfare community,” Greitens said. Rob O’Neill, the man who claims to have killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, rallied with Greitens last month in Springfield.
His campaign, though, also faced criticism from a group of Navy SEALs claiming to have made a video, called “Eric Greitens: The Heart and the Myth,” earlier this year critical of Greitens’ military career. Greitens responded with his own video touting more endorsements from military officials.
Campaign financing did not come up at the town hall Friday night. Attendees did ask questions about what Greitens would do to support government employees.
Greitens said he would reward work that employees do that shows positive results for Missourians.
Democratic candidate Chris Koster’s campaign released a statement following the event.
It reads: ” Missourians are tired of hearing the same political platitudes and tired promises from Eric Greitens. He said he would release his tax returns, and he refuses to. He said his largest donor was a group of Navy SEALs, and we now know it is simply a shell organization.”
