Governor’s legal team wants St. Louis prosecutors off case

Attorneys for Gov. Eric Greitens want the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office off the new criminal case against him.

James Bennett, one of the lawyers representing Greitens in his various cases, filed the motion in the felony computer tampering case on Monday afternoon. He claims the documented mistakes made by Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office in the pending invasion of privacy case should disqualify her from handling the new charge.

Gardner’s office charged Greitens with the crime on Friday, claiming he took a list of donors that had given to The Mission Continues, a charity he started, to help raise money for his gubernatorial campaign. The charity has said it never gave Greitens permission to use the list.

Bennett said the presence of Don Tisaby, the private investigator hired by Gardner to handle the Greitens cases, “jeopardizes” Greitens’ right to a fair trial. Tisaby’s work came under fire in the invasion of privacy case when prosecutors handed over a videotaped interview he did with the governor’s former mistress. They claim Tisaby lied about taking notes during the interview, and not turning those notes over to the defense team.

Bennett said Tisaby has interviewed at least 35 witnesses related to the computer tampering charge.

“It is improper for a prosecutor to have a personal interest in creating another prosecution to distract from the way a prior prosecution was handled,” Bennett wrote.

Bennett also asked Judge Madeline Connolly to avoid appointing the Attorney General’s Office as a special prosecutor, should she disqualify Gardner. Bennett repeated the legal team’s position that Attorney General Josh Hawley has shown a bias against Greitens after calling for his resignation in the wake of the House of Representative’s special investigative committee’s report on April 11.

The attorney general’s office responded to a restraining order request last week, which was unsealed on Monday. The office said Greitens request was frivolous and “a vexatious attempt to interfere with the orderly pursuit of justice.”

First Assistant Attorney General John Sauer wrote that the office started its investigation into The Mission Continues and Greitens in February, before prosecutors charged the governor with his first crime. Sauer said Hawley’s comments were specifically in reference to the House report, and had nothing to do with the charity investigation. Taking the office off that investigation would only cause more harm than good, Sauer said, due to the office’s knowledge of consumer protection laws and the case itself.

“The public has an interest in ensuring that any wrongdoing by the sitting Governor is identified and brought to the attention of the proper authorities,” Sauer said.

Cole County Judge Jon Beetem will hear arguments on the restraining order on Thursday at 10 a.m.