Call Attorney General Josh Hawley
Call Attorney General Josh Hawley's office at 573-751-3321 to request an investigation into the use of personal cell phones and the Confide app by the Governor and his staff.
Overview:
It has been widely reported that Governor Greitens and his senior staff are using a text-erasing app called Confide on their personal cell phones. Conducting government business via their personal cell phones and secret apps would be illegally circumventing Missouri Sunshine Law and destroying public records. We encourage all Missouri residents who have concerns about transparency in our state government and the Governor’s staff to call the Attorney General to request an impartial and thorough investigation.
Details:
In a disturbing story this week The Kansas City Star reported that Gov. Greitens and his senior government staff are using a text-erasing app called Confide on their personal cell phones. Using the Confide app, the sender’s text message will self-destroy once it’s been read. Confide also prevents recipients from forwarding, printing, or taking a screenshot of the texts.
Voters were promised transparency by candidate Greitens however as Governor he has been anything but. He maintains secrecy over corporate and lobbyist funding of his inauguration, insisted on non-disclosure gag orders for his transition team, refuses to disclose who’s financing his private jet travel, so this latest revelation about the use of a text-destroying app is deeply troubling and raises serious concerns about whether Greitens and his administration are circumventing Missouri’s Sunshine Law.
Alarmed advocates of open government are speaking out including the ACLU of Missouri executive director, Jeffrey Mittman, “The Sunshine Law exists to protect the public by requiring their government conducts the people’s business in an open, ethical manner. This is to ensure that the government acts in the interest of the public it was created to serve. When government officials conduct public business in secret, it is a betrayal of the public’s trust.”
Several concerned Democrats have called on Attorney General Josh Hawley to investigate the Governor’s office use of the Confide app since his office is responsible for enforcement of Missouri’s Sunshine Law, but Hawley’s office has so far refused on the grounds that “the attorney general currently represents the governor in ongoing litigation.” On Friday St. Louis Sen. Scott Sifton responded in a letter to Hawley’s office that the attorney general has both the legal authority and the obligation to investigate whether public records are being destroyed illegally by the Governor’s office and wrote, “I respectfully request that your office undertake, through independent appointees if you deem it necessary, a full and thorough investigation of the governor’s and his staff’s use of the Confide application,” and requested that Hawley “take any action necessary to prevent the destruction of public records in connection with the governor’s and his staff’s use of the Confide application.”
Bills to address the Governor’s office use of Confide are being drafted by several Democrats in hopes of being introduced in January when the 2018 legislative session begins.
Sample Call Script for the Attorney General’s office:
“Hi, my name is __________, I am from ___________, and I would like to ask Attorney General Josh Hawley to immediately investigate the Governor’s office compliance with the Missouri Sunshine Laws and whether public records are being destroyed by the Governor’s office.”
If the Attorney General’s office says they cannot investigate because the Attorney General is representing the Governor in ongoing litigation, respond with “Then I demand that an independent investigator be assigned to determine if the Governor’s office is complying with the Sunshine Law.”
Sources:
“Greitens’ penchant for secrecy goes digital with messaging app that leaves no trace”
http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article188405944.html#storylink=cpy
Greitens’ self-destructing texts inspire call for attorney general investigation”
http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article188739489.html
Greitens’ onetime vows of transparency lost in a veil of dark money
By Kevin McDermott St. Louis Post-Dispatch 12/8/2017
