JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) \u2014 Missouri\u2019s attorney general said Monday that he\u2019s weighing whether to appoint a special investigator to check into use of the secretive Confide messaging app by several senior members of Gov. Eric Greitens\u2019 office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attorney General Josh Hawley, a Republican, was asked by Democratic state Sen. Scott Sifton of the St. Louis area to investigate after The Kansas City Star reported last week that it determined Greitens and some of his staff have Confide accounts connected to their personal cellphones. The app deletes messages and prevents recipients from saving, forwarding, printing or taking screenshots of messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hawley said at a news conference Monday that he can\u2019t directly investigate Greitens because he\u2019s defending the Republican governor\u2019s office in other legal cases, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported . But Hawley could appoint a special investigator, and he said he\u2019s looking at case law to determine whether to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is another nothing story that\u2019s come from a liberal media outlet that is just desperate for salacious headlines,\u201d said Greitens, referring to The Star\u2019s story during his own press conference Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greitens spokesman Parker Briden previously told The Star, \u201cI don\u2019t believe anyone has (Confide) downloaded on a state-issued device.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greitens and his office have not disputed information reported by The Star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Message-encrypting apps such as Confide have gained popularity, particularly in some political circles after Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign was hacked last year, the website Axios reported. The Washington Post reported the app has also been used by White House staffers worried about being accused of leaking information to the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hawley, who is running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, said his office\u2019s policy and legal opinion is that text messages sent or received by state employees about state business fall under Missouri\u2019s open records law. But he added that the \u201clegal complexities are significant\u201d and promised an update soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s unclear if governor\u2019s office staffers are using the app for official business, campaign work or personal communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Missouri\u2019s attorney general said Monday that he\u2019s weighing whether to appoint a special investigator to check into use of the secretive Confide messaging app by several senior members of Gov. Eric Greitens\u2019 office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":32182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"8":{"categories":[],"primary_category":""}}},"categories":[106,29,32],"tags":[],"coauthors":[7466],"class_list":["post-11392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"6OVDGV6SLBGWBPCKYFGOWL2CHI","arc_canonical_url":"\/civilian\/fbi-doj\/2017\/12\/12\/missouri-attorney-general-weighs-in-on-confide-messaging-app\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n