Missouri’s GOP gubernatorial primary came to an end on Tuesday, but some of the defeated candidates are not willing to let bygones be bygones. The Republican Party was forced to scrap a planned unity event on Thursday, and while the state chair blamed “logistical issues,” multiple sources said that rich guy John Brunner refused to participate. Brunner and former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens, who took the GOP nod earlier this week, had waged a long and nasty contest, and Brunner is reportedly particularly upset about a lawsuit brought against him by an extremely controversial Greitens donor.
To recap the backstory here, a woman named Amber Laurel Baptiste has accused Silicon Valley venture capitalist Michael Goguen of making her his sex slave over a 13-year period. The two initially reached a $40 million settlement, but Goguen only paid a quarter of the amount; Baptiste then took him to court for the rest. Goguen has donated $1 million to Greitens, and the GOP nominee has refused to dispose of it, arguing that Goguen is innocent until proven guilty.
In a debate just before the primary, Brunner sought to make Goguen an issue, telling Greitens that he "refuse[s] to be lectured by a guy who took $1 million from the owner of a teenage sex slave." Goguen then proceeded to sue Brunner for his remark and other social media posts, arguing that Brunner "knowingly and maliciously spread demonstrable lies." Among other things, Goguen’s lawsuit says that Baptiste never alleged she was a “teenage sex slave.”
Unnamed GOP sources tell the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Brunner wants Greitens to help him get the lawsuit dropped. However, Greitens reportedly has insisted that he has no influence over Goguen. As a consequence, Brunner doesn’t seem to want to make life easy for Greitens right now: On Thursday, Brunner tweeted, “I now believe erroneous, and retract, any statements that a contributor to the Greitens campaign was the owner of a teenage sex slave.” That’s a too-clever-by-half way of trying to wriggle out of Goguen's lawsuit while at the same time once again linking Greitens’ name with the phrase “teenage sex slave.”
Greitens faces a competitive race with Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster, and he can’t be pleased that Brunner is playing these games, something Brunner undoubtedly knows. But Greitens’ other two beaten primary opponents are being much more cooperative. Both Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and ex-U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway pledged to back the GOP slate, though only Hanaway mentioned Greitens by name.