Former FBI agent William Don Tisaby, who was involved in an investigation of then-Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens in 2018, has pleaded guilty to a charge of misdemeanor evidence tampering earlier this week just one day before jury selection in his trial on seven felony counts, including perjury, was about to begin.
Tisaby, who now works as a private investigator, was hired by Soros-backed St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner as part of an investigation into allegations against Greitens over an invasion of privacy case. After the investigation began, Greitens resigned in 2018.
In 2019, Tisaby was indicted on seven felonies that included charges of perjury and evidence tampering. In a plea agreement, he acknowledged that he said in a deposition that certain documents did not exist when in reality they did, Robert Russell, the special prosecutor in the case, told reporters outside of the courthouse in St. Louis after the deal was reached.
“He’s admitting to hiding or at least testifying that the notes that Ms. Gardner gave to him were not given to him by testifying that he did not take any notes, when in fact he did take notes on those notes Ms. Gardner gave him,” Russell said, The Epoch Times reported.
The outlet noted further:
Tisaby also took notes from an interview with a witness and sent them to Gardner, but falsely testified that he never did.
Gardner is set to face a disciplinary hearing soon for allegedly hiding details about the Greitens investigation from members of her team.
Russell said prosecutors “have an ethical obligation to correct and make sure the record is clear” regarding documents and that they should correct witnesses who offer false information.
Thanks to the deal, Tisaby, who was looking at very serious prison time, will now not serve any time in jail. Instead, he will serve just one year of probation and pay court costs.
“I think we’ve reached an appropriate resolution for Mr. Tisaby in this case based on what occurred,” Russell said, adding that it’s important to make sure anybody attached to law enforcement is held accountable for being untruthful -- though it's pretty obvious that Tisaby got off extremely easy considering his role in trying to destroy a sitting, popularly elected governor.
Tisaby's attorney, Jermaine Wooten, told reporters after his client pleaded guilty that while he and his associates were prepared to go to trial, Tisaby was eager to put the entire case to rest due to his current age and health.
“I think it was just more of an issue of just negligence in this matter. It was a slew of documents that he had and he just went into that deposition not prepared. There was no malice in this man’s heart,” Wooten said. He added that no one told his client to hide the existence of the documents.
But Russell disagreed, noting that by pleading guilty, Tisaby admitted that he hid evidence on purpose. "I think he just didn't want anybody to see what he had done," Russell said.
“He’s admitting to hiding or at least testifying that the notes that Ms. Gardner gave to him were not given to him by testifying that he did not take any notes, when in fact he did take notes on those notes Ms. Gardner gave him,” Russell said.
In addition, Tisaby took notes from an interview and then sent them to Gardner, but he testified that he didn't.
For her part, Gardner is set to face a disciplinary hearing for allegedly keeping details of the investigation from her team.
Greitens, meanwhile, is running for the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Roy Blount (R-Mo.).
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