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.
Courser’s alleged extramarital affair with Gamrat was exposed by the Detroit News in August after Courser reportedly asked one of his aides to leak that Courser was spotted with a male prostitute. Courser later claimed that he faked the gay sex scandal to expose blackmailers.
The Michigan House disciplinary committee recommended on Thursday that both Courser and Gamrat be expelled for their roles in the affair and cover-up, prompting a lengthy debate on the state House floor.
Early on in the debate, Democratic lawmakers refused to vote to expel the Tea Party lawmakers until they had more information on the Republican-led investigation into the lawmakers’ actions, according to the Detroit Free Press. After an initial vote to expel Courser and Gamrat failed on Thursday night, the state House reconvened shortly after midnight to try again.
After the House added an amendment requiring probes by the police and state attorney general, additional Democrats came around to expulsion, according to the Detroit Free Press.
As it became clear that he might be expelled, Courser resigned from his seat shortly after 3 a.m. on 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.”
Yet Gamrat held out. She had told reporters that she was promised censure by Republican leadership when she signed a statement about her role in the affair and cover-up, according to MLive.
“I know in my heart the mistakes I’ve made are not all the mistakes in the report,” she said on the state House floor early Friday morning, according to MLive. “I still believe my actions warrant censure, but not expulsion.”
She was expelled in a 91-12 vote around 4 a.m. on Friday morning, according to the Detroit Free Press.
