“Appeal filed in lawsuit over Eric Greitens’ use of self-destructing text message app” – Missouri Independent
BY: JASON HANCOCK of the Missouri Independent
A lawsuit alleging former Gov. Eric Greitens illegally destroyed public records during his time in office by using a self-destructing text messaging app is on its way to Missouri’s Western District Court of Appeals.
The appeal, filed last week by Mark Pedroli of the Sunshine and Government Accountability Project, is the latest twist in a lawsuit that’s been ongoing for more than three years.
And it comes just as Greitens has re-emerged on the public stage, officially jumping into the Republican primary last month for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Roy Blunt.
Pedroli originally filed his lawsuit in December 2017 after it was revealed Greitens and his staff were using a text-messaging app called Confide.
The app allows someone to send a text message that vanishes without a trace after it is read. It also prevents anyone from saving, forwarding, printing or taking a screenshot of the message.
Over the course of Pedroli’s lawsuit, he determined that nearly every member of the former governor’s taxpayer-funded staff had a Confide account, and that the app was being used to communicate both within the governor’s office and with outside allies and lobbyists.
