A Missouri judge has found former Gov. Eric Greitens’ (R-MO) “children have never been at risk or vulnerable at the hands of either parent” despite his ex-wife Sheena Greitens’s allegations of abuse against him, according to a report.
On Tuesday, Just the News’s founder and CEO, John Solomon, reported the development after obtaining a copy of Boone County Circuit Judge Leslie Schneider’s August 26 decision.
“The Court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that there has been no pattern of domestic violence by either Mother or Father,” she wrote. “The children have never been at risk or vulnerable at the hands of either parent.”
Greitens endured a mudslinging-filled Republican U.S. Senate primary this year following his ex-wife’s allegations and declined to speak with Just the News, while Sheena Greitens’s lawyer did not respond to a comment request.
As Solomon points out, Sheena Greitens filed the affidavit on March 21 when Greitens was leading in the polls. A Super PAC called Show Me Values – which was funded in part by establishment Republican donors, including Gov. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Rex Sinquefield, a contributor to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) – used the affidavit in a political ad against Greitens.
Show Me Values’s sole purpose was to torpedo the resurrection of Greitens’s political career. The group shelled out almost $8 million dollars to accomplish this goal, according to Open Secrets, helping Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt secure the nomination.
Despite Greitens’ denials, millions of dollars in negative advertisements and a subsequent narrative that he would be a general election liability proved to be too much for the former governor to overcome in the primary, as he finished behind Schmitt and Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO).
The custody battle for the children is still ongoing and is moving to Texas, as Solomon noted:
Schneider ultimately came to a decision three weeks after the primary, ruling it would be better for the child custody case to move to Texas in the future as Sheena Greitens had requested. The judge’s reasoning cited the notoriety the affidavit had generated since Missouri court records are open, saying Texas and its history of keeping family court matters secret would better protect the couple’s two children.
“The proclivity to share privileged or private communications on social media, and in interviews with the press, presents a possible future risk of harm to the children which may impact their best interests,” Schneider ruled. “However, no Court, whether in Missouri or Texas, can insulate the children from every parenting decision.”
As the ruling is not public, the Associated Press reports that it has joined the Kansas City Star in a motion to unseal Schneider’s decision.