Hawley looks into hiring investigator to check Greitens’s staff usage of secretive messaging app

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley is deciding whether to appoint a special investigator to check into the use of the secretive Confide app by Gov. Eric Greitens’s staff.

ABC17 previously reported the app sends messages designed to be read by the recipient and no one else. Messages on the app “self-destruct” after they are read, and they cannot be captured by screenshot.

Although it is not clear what he is discussing on it, the governor’s use of the app has drawn concern from government transparency advocates.

Hawley said he can not directly investigate Greitens because he is defending the governor’s office in other legal cases.

However, Hawley could appoint a special investigator. Hawley said text messages sent or received by state employees about state business fall under open records laws, but he also says the issue is “complicated.”