Why Did Eric Greitens Resign? To avoid revealing 'dark money' sources?

[muriel_volestrangler]

From Talking Points Memo (their 'Prime Beta' section, which you need a subscription for, but which sometimes gets put on their RSS feed anyway):

As you know, Greitens has held out for months in the face of a sex and blackmail scandal which has been mercilessly damaging. It’s destroyed his political career and no doubt exacted all manner of damage within his family. Through all this Greitens has refused to resign even though he has seen an almost total collapse of support from his own party. Call it dedication or shamelessness, his refusal to buckle has been noteworthy.
...
Earlier today a court ordered that Greitens had to turn over documents from his dark money political group to the state House committee investigating wrongdoing for a potential impeachment trial. Greitens held firm on sex, blackmail, allegations of revenge porn and sexual assault. He resigned with close to no notice when forced to turn over the records from his dark money group.

We talked about this here at TPM and some of my colleagues note that Greitens is facing impeachment and this ruling cleared the path for impeachment. It’s not clear to me whether Greitens might still have had to turn these records over in a criminal trial. Indeed, I’m not totally sure whether resigning means he can now hold on to the records. But the way this normally works is that since the predicate of impeachment is now moot, the investigation ends.

Link to tweet

Former prosecutor explains why Greitens' chose Tuesday to resign

Former Cole County prosecutor Bill Tackett spoke with KOMU 8 News about why Gov. Greitens chose Tuesday to resign. Tackett explained how a ruling made by a judge earlier in the day led Greitens to step down.

A judge ruled that a nonprofit called A New Missouri, Inc, that promotes Greitens' agenda had to hand over documents. Tackett said information in those documents could expose information the governor does not want made public.

"Once the ruling came down on the dark money with A New Missouri, that's when the room got really cold and silent. Because then you're talking about exposing all of those donors and what they might have to say about that connection between that committee and Greitens and suddenly you've got a circuit attorney's office that's willing to play ball," Tackett said. "That was a giant can of worms that got opened up by that ruling."
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"Instantly that changed the playing field because that's dark money, that's something they don't want to get into because of who gave the money and for what purpose and is it tied to Greitens instead of being independent. So, when that ruling hit it looks like they contacted the circuit attorney's office and said, 'Let's make a plea deal,'" Tacket said.

http://www.komu.com/news/former-prosecutor-explains-why-greitens-chose-tuesday-to-resign

Being accused of kidnapping and blackmail? That a Republican can face down. But revealing who bankrolls them ... unthinkable.

[beachbum bob]

1. he was going to be impeached, resigning hasn;t stopped the criminal proceedings

[SWBTATTReg]

2. I would hope also that this 'dark' money would be exposed too. As ...

a Missouri taxpayer, I deserve to know where this campaign money comes from when Greitens ran for governor. I want to see where all of this dark, dirty money is coming from. I guarantee you that it's not coming (the bulk of the money) isn't coming from Missouri voters, but from outside interests, interested in only their non-Missouri agenda that these interests wish to pursue in Wash. DC.