JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri newspaper publisher is defending himself against legislative questions about his payments to an attorney for a man whose ex-wife had an affair with Gov. Eric Greitens.
Scott Faughn, the publisher of the Jefferson City-based Missouri Times, which focuses on covering the state capital, was questioned Wednesday by a House investigatory committee considering whether to recommend Greitens’ impeachment.
At issue is an audio recording secretly made by a man in which his wife tells him that Greitens took a compromising photo of her in March 2015 and threatened to distribute it if she spoke of their sexual encounter.
Faughn said he paid $100,000 cash to the man’s attorney, Al Watkins, in January 2017 to obtain the recording.
Faughn testified that the money was his but declined to say how he got it because he didn’t want to discuss the inner workings of his business.