LANSING, MI -- Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat, embattled lawmakers accused of misconduct and misusing taxpayer resources to hide their extra-marital affair, are no longer representatives in the Michigan House.
Courser, R-Lapeer, resigned at 3:12 a.m. on Friday as the House prepared for a third vote on a resolution to expel him from office.
One hour later, the House voted 91-12 to expel Gamrat, R-Plainwell, making her just the fourth lawmaker ever to be removed from the Michigan Legislature by her peers.
Gamrat was immediately escorted from the chambers, and then the state Capitol, by House sergeants. She declined to speak with the media.
Courser, who spoke with reporters after turning in his resignation letter to the House clerk and walking off the floor, said it simply felt like the appropriate moment to step down. He was convinced the GOP majority was going to find enough Democratic votes to expel him.
"It's an unfortunate chapter, where we're at, obviously for the state House, for the state, for the Legislature, for my own family," Courser said. "It's time to turn a page and take a step forward and go in a different direction, obviously heal some stuff in my own house, and this House and this body can heal a little bit more as well."
The House Business Office, which launched an investigation last month at the request of Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant, had accused both Courser and Gamrat of "deceptive, deceitful, and outright dishonest conduct."
The freshman lawmakers "abused their offices," according to an 833-page report made public this week. They directed staff to facilitate their affair, and they also blurred lines between official and political work, a potential violation of Michigan campaign finance rules.
"These two members have obliterated public trust," said Rep. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, who chaired a special committee that had recommended expulsion for both lawmakers. "They have obliterated the trust of their colleagues, and each day that they continue here, they reduce the public's trust in this institution."
Despite the evidence against them, expulsion votes did not come easy. Removing an elected representative from office, a rare action, requires a 2/3 supermajority.
An initial attempt to expel Courser fell short on Thursday evening. Several Democrats had declined to vote, questioning the speed of the process and suggesting the need for additional investigation.
A lengthy standstill was broken early Friday morning when Cotter and Minority Leader Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills, reached an agreement to request that Michigan State Police and the office of Attorney General Bill Schuette investigate any potential criminal conduct by Courser and Gamrat.
It was then, when it appeared likely that at least 73 House members would vote for expulsion, that Courser resigned.
"We were very concerned about the lack of probative investigation that took place during the House committee," Greimel said after the marathon 15-hour session. "We believe that it was an attempt to kick things under the rug, to cover things up, and we believed we needed a further, more in-depth investigation by a law enforcement agency."
The resignation and expulsion capped a spectacular fall for Courser and Gamrat, who won election last year behind a wave of tea party support and a socially conservative platform, including a defense of traditional marriage.
Courser and Gamrat began their legislative tenure in audacious fashion, releasing a 10-part "contract for liberty" that they called "the beginning of a roadmap to restore our founder's intent for the proper role of government."
But they quickly burned bridges in Lansing, alienating the few allies they had. Gamrat was kicked out of the House GOP caucus in April, and Courser eventually stopped attending the Republican strategy meetings in protest.
Rep. Gary Glenn, R-Midland, another freshman lawmaker who won election on a similar policy platform, said Courser and Gamrat's actions had hurt the conservative cause they purported to champion.
"I want to see the damage stopped to their families, their constituents, to values I share with them, and to this institution," Glenn said in a floor speech, backing expulsion.
Rumors of an affair between Courser and Gamrat had swirled around Lansing for months, but in the end, it was the cover-up that did them in.
Courser, as heard on a secret recording made by a staffer he would later fire, plotted a bizarre and fictitious email designed to discredit any real revelation of his affair, calling it "a controlled burn" to "inoculate the herd."
The salacious missive, which he sent to hundreds of people on his email list, accused Courser of sleeping with a male prostitute and doing drugs. It called Gamrat "a tramp, a lie and a laugh" who was complicit in his behavior.
Courser, in sworn testimony before the special committee that had been tasked with considering his fitness to remain in office, admitted sending the "baffling and mind-boggling" email but said he was under intense pressure due to anonymous text messages from someone threatening to expose the affair.
Gamrat, in a public apology last month, said she "did not author or assist" in sending the email. In an interview with the House Business Office, she also "unconditionally stated" that she did not know about the email before it was sent.
However, in her own sworn testimony on Tuesday, Gamrat acknowledged that she had discussed the email concept with Courser before it was sent and was generally aware of the strategy.
She accepted other key findings of the House investigation, a decision she appeared to walk back on Thursday afternoon, telling reporters she had signed a written statement with the understanding that she would be censured, rather than expelled, if she did so.
"I know in my heart the mistakes I've made are not all the mistakes in the report," she said in a final floor speech before the vote. "I still believe my actions warrant censure, but not expulsion."
Resigning would have been a lot easier, she said, and it was an option she considered with her family on a regular basis in the wake of the sex scandal revelation.
"I can't go back and change the past," she said. "The only thing I could do was try to go forward and do it better."
Cotter's own chief of staff, in his capacity as general counsel, had recommended the House expel Courser and censure Gamrat. But Cotter, speaking with reporters on Friday morning, made clear he was satisfied with the outcome.
"It's not a good feeling," Cotter said after session. "...This is nothing to celebrate, but I think it was a very necessary process. I think there's been a cloud hanging over us for some time, and I think it was important that we came together tonight, this morning, and ultimately addressed it."
Jonathan Oosting is a Capitol reporter for MLive Media Group. Email him, find him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.