Michigan House sex scandal: One lawmaker resigns, other is expelled ‘Report’

After faking a gay sex scandal to cover up an affair, Michigan state Rep. Todd Courser (R) resigned and Rep. Cindy Gamrat (R) was expelled from the Michigan House early Friday morning.

“I felt is was the appropriate thing to do. I put everybody through a whole bunch, my family, constituents and the people in this room,” Courser said, according to the Detroit Free Press. “You go 14-15 hours later, they would have been doing a third vote. I felt they were just going to go until they got their answer.

“It’s an unfortunate chapter where we’re at, but it’s time to turn a page and go in a different direction and obviously heal, in my own house and in this body as well,” Courser said. “It’s been hell.”

Gamrat decided to leave her fate with her colleagues and continued to press for censure instead of expulsion, a deal she said she had been promised after a meeting with House Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mount Pleasant, last week.

“I firmly believe in restoration and redemption,” she said.” I have done everything I can to redeem this situation and I’m sincerely sorry for what this has caused. I still believe my actions warrant censure, but not expulsion.”

At 4:13 a.m., the House voted, 91-12, to oust Gamrat, making her only the fourth legislator in Michigan history to be expelled.

Agencies/Canadajournal