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Committee investigating Greitens indictment has issued subpoenas, but other details scant

Marshall Griffin | St. Louis Public Radio
Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, briefs the media on March 14, 2018, on the investigation into the indictment of Gov. Eric Greitens.

The head of the Missouri House committee investigating the indictment against Gov. Eric Greitens provided a brief update Wednesday on how it’s going.

Chairman Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, told reporters at the Capitol that there would be no “details of substance.”

“We’ve had five hearings in two weeks, spoken to a number of witnesses, (and) there are additional witnesses with whom we plan to speak,” he said.

Barnes said they’ve issued some subpoenas, but wouldn’t say how many or to whom. And he said the committee has not received any information so far from the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s office on their separate investigation into the governor.

“We requested that, we’ve had some discussions, (but) there is an order in that case not to release the information to third parties,” he said. “We may choose to go down that path in the future to get that information, but we have not gone down that path to this point.”

Barnes did not say whether that effort would also involve a subpoena. He said the committee is still on track to release a report “of some sort” by the 40-day deadline, which ends April 9.

“Let me put the asterisk on that statement,” he added. “The committee may determine that we need to do more fact finding before we release a report.”

The Special Investigative Committee on Oversight is tentatively scheduled to meet again March 23, during the legislative spring break.

Greitens, a Republican, is accused of taking a semi-nude photo of his then-mistress without her permission in 2015. He and state Republican Party officials have called the indictment a witch hunt.

Follow Marshall on Twitter: @MarshallGReport

Marshal was a political reporter for St. Louis Public Radio until 2018.