Missouri Governor Jay Nixon repeatedly denied knowing anything about Missouri illegally sharing its citizens private CCW information with the federal government, even after his own head of Missouri Highway Patrol contradicted him in a public hearing. Now we’ve learned that Nixon not only knew about the violation of Missouri law, but he was thanked in a letter by Janet Napolitano:

DHS- Letter to Nixon- REAL ID Compliance — ongoing MO CCW Scandal

Missouri law — signed into effect by Gov. Nixon himself — prohibits full compliance with the Real ID Act. This includes sharing Missouri’s conceal carry list, which officials under Nixon did, with his full knowledge, according to this letter.

Missouri’s governor lied to his constituency when he said that no documents were being shared — Nixon even claimed that the lawsuit was dismissed, which it was not:

“First of all, the Department of Revenue has been very clear,” Nixon said.  “There are no documents being sent to some federal government magic database somewhere to do something.”

Nixon then referred to a lawsuit filed by a private citizen in southeast Missouri who objected to a state license office scanning his CCW permit so it could be noted on his driver’s license.  The citizen thought the office should just look at his document and make him a new license with the CCW notation.

“That’s why the Stoddard County court last week dismissed the lawsuit, dismissed it making that exact claim,” Nixon said on Wednesday.

The lawsuit in Stoddard County is not dismissed, as the governor said, but the judge in the case has ruled against the request of the citizen, Eric Griffin, for the judge to order the Department of Revenue not to scan and retain the CCW information.

Gov. Nixon is set to testify in a public hearing this Friday. Will he finally start telling the truth? Will Attorney General Chris Koster act, or will taxpayers be forced to hire a second attorney to do the job Democrat Koster is afraid to do: enforce Missouri’s laws?

Today I’ll speak with Russ Oliver, the Missouri prosecuting attorney who started it all, on my program on more developments.

*UPDATE: The Missouri Senate filed remonstrance (h/t Adam):

This is a Senate Remonstrance against the Governor for the release by the Department of Revenue and the Department of Public Safety of personal protected information which has been publicly admitted by the departments.

*UPDATE 2: A senate hearing is underway right now led by Sen. Kurt Schaefer, Chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Moments ago while under oath a SSA agent just admitted that any veteran  drawing social security disability and who had a CCW would have been a target .

Follow @dloesch