This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Governor Eric Greitens of Missouri denied on Thursday taking nude photos of a woman or threatening to blackmail her over their relationship, an extramarital affair he admitted to the day before.

Also on Thursday, Greitens’ attorney, Jim Bennett, released a statement denying any violence by the governor. “Any allegation of violence is completely false. It never happened. There was never any violence,” Bennett said.

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A day earlier, Greitens had acknowledged a months-long extramarital affair, after a local news station, KMOV, reported he had a sexual relationship with his hairdresser in 2015. In a tape secretly recorded by her ex-husband, the woman says Greitens told her he would disclose nude photos of her if she spoke about their relationship.

Bennett said Greitens denies taking a photo and or any blackmail threat.

Greitens is not under criminal investigation, but the city’s top prosecutor, Kim Gardner, encouraged anyone with evidence of a crime to come forward. She said no complaint was filed in her office, nor evidence of a crime presented. An attorney for the ex-husband said he has been interviewed multiple times by the FBI. An FBI spokeswoman declined comment.

The governor and his wife released a statement on Wednesday saying he had been “unfaithful in our marriage”.

“This was a deeply personal mistake. Eric took responsibility, and we dealt with this together honestly and privately,” the statement said.

KMOV aired its story on Wednesday, after the ex-husband, who also was not named, provided an audio recording in which the woman gives details about a sexual encounter she says she had with Greitens in March 2015 at his St Louis home.

On the tape, she said that he invited her downstairs at his home because he wanted to show her “how to do a proper pull-up”.

“I knew he was being sexual, and I still let him,” she said. “And he used some sort of tape, I don’t know what it was, and taped my hands to these rings and then put a blindfold on me.”

She says she later realized he took a photo of her. “I saw a flash through the blindfold and he said, ‘You’re never going to mention my name.’”

The woman, who was also not named, did not know about the recording and did not comment on the record to the TV station.

A bipartisan group of state senators signed a letter asking the state attorney general to investigate the blackmail allegations. Attorney general Josh Hawley’s office did not have an immediate response.

Republican leaders in the Missouri senate described the allegations against Greitens as “shocking and concerning”. Democratic leaders Gina Walsh and Kiki Curls said “violence and threats against women are never acceptable” and that the allegations must be investigated.