Michigan Panel Resumes Hearings For Lawmakers In Sex Scandal
LANSING (WWJ/AP) - A Michigan legislative committee is resuming rare disciplinary hearings for two lawmakers who are accused of misusing public resources to hide an extramarital affair.
The special six-member panel will convene Tuesday to begin hearing testimony after holding a quick organizational meeting last week. The House Business Office alleges that Republican freshmen Reps. Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat were dishonest and violated House rules and Michigan's campaign-finance law.
The committee could recommend discipline, including censure or expulsion by the full House.
Courser, 43, and Gamrat, 42, have apologized but declined calls to resign.
Courser has admitted that he arranged for a phony email to be sent to Republican activists and others that said he had been caught having sex with a male prostitute. He said the tale would make the affair less believable in case it was exposed by an anonymous blackmailer who was sending him and Gamrat text messages demanding that he resign or their relationship would be exposed. The self-smear email called Courser a "bi-sexual porn addicted sex deviant" and "gun toting Bible thumping … freak."
After an aide to Courser and Gamrat was fired in July, he gave The Detroit News a secret audio recording of Courser demanding that he send the email to "inoculate the herd," an apparent reference to Courser's supporters. While the aide refused and the email was likely legal, the plot was unethical and showed a "callous lack of respect" to the public, according to the investigation. It also said Gamrat was aware of the email contrary to her assertions.
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