They say that time heals all wounds. But some wounds don’t heal. They fester and metastasize until pain demands the intervention of a surgeon’s scalpel.
Two years have passed since Eric Greitens was carried from the Missouri Governor’s Mansion by a toxic cocktail of lies, false allegations, and prosecutorial misconduct.
For two years, Missouri’s media and establishment Republicans pretended it never happened. They never liked Greitens, and they wanted him to go away.
But Greitens didn’t inflict this wound. The lacerations and contusions were the work of corrupt prosecutors and lawmakers, the Tax Credit Syndicate, and sanctioned or promoted by Missouri’s elitist Republican Party.
Those wounds aren’t healing. They’re pushing through the scaly skin of the 24th state. More and more people now see that Missouri’s corruption makes Rod Blagojevich’s Illinois look cleaner than a Marine’s rifle barrel.
Among those recognizing the enormous wounds inflicted by Kim Gardner, Scott Faughn, Jay Barnes, and their financiers are Representatives Rob Vescovo of Jefferson County and Justin Hill of Lake St. Louis. Even the normally compliant Missouri press has begun to smell the stench of rotting flesh.
Jason Hancock of the Kansas City Star wrote earlier this week on the legislature’s growing awareness of the enormity of the crime against Greitens and Missouri voters. Hancock details the obvious shadiness of Scott Faughn, proprietor of The Missouri Times, a propaganda rag for lobbyists and corporate special interests. The story provides important background:
In 2017, Greitens orchestrated the demise of the state’s low-income housing tax credit, a program he routinely criticized during his successful campaign for governor.
A month later, Faughn paid $50,000 in cash to Watkins, who was representing the ex-husband of the woman who accused Greitens of coercive and violent sexual misconduct.
Shortly after the payment, St. Louis television station KMOV broadcast a recording provided by the ex-husband of his former wife detailing how Greitens allegedly tied her up, stripped off her clothes, photographed her naked without her consent and threatened to release the image if she told anyone about their affair.
The recording was made without the woman’s knowledge and publicized without her consent.
Faughn would eventually pay the attorney another $70,000 in cash, keeping the transactions secret for months while continuing to cover Greitens both in his newspaper and on his TV show – which is sponsored by Sterling Bank, a Poplar Bluff-based bank that is highly involved in low-income housing tax credits.
When the payments were eventually revealed, Faughn fled the state to avoid a subpoena from Greitens’ lawyers.
Watkins testified under oath that Faughn told him that the money had come from “an unnamed, anonymous wealthy Republican who did not like Greitens and that it was personal. That’s all I knew about the guy.”
Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article240409101.html#storylink=cpy
Representative Rob Vescovo is pushing legislation to increase penalties for giving false testimony to the legislature. Vescovo cites Scott Faughn’s ridiculous and obvious lies to the committee that investigated Greitens in 2018.
And Rep. Justin Hill, meanwhile, has asked federal prosecutors to investigate the source of the money Faughn gave to attorney Al Watkins and, potentially, others.
Meanwhile, I continue to receive media requests regarding the conspiracy against Greitens. More and more reporters are noticing that the abscess on Missouri’s politic rump is about to rupture, exposing the fetid mess of tax credits, politics, prosecutors, and one pathetic propagandist named Scott Faughn.
Action: Call your Missouri legislators and ask them to support Rob Vescovo and Justin Hill as they begin to lance Missouri’s most obnoxious boil.