Michigan lawmaker doesn’t plan to resign after orchestrating smear campaign

The emergence of another Courser associate being purportedly entangled in what Graham called a “cover-up” comes after House Speaker Kevin Cotter called Friday for an internal House investigation of Courser and Gamrat’s actions and as calls for their resignations began to mount. The pair also could face removal from office if the House passes a resolution, which would need two-thirds support from the 110-member House, said Gideon D’Assandro, spokesman for Cotter.

In the audio statement released Monday, Courser apologizes to his family, his constituents and Gamrat’s family.

Courser went on to claim that Graham and another former Lansing staffer, Josh Cline, are somehow involved in the blackmail scheme against him as a means to “extract their revenge” for being fired. On Saturday, Steve McNeal, chairman of the Allegan County Republican Party, where Gamrat lives, said she should resign immediately. It was the only option that I felt would be unpredicted by the blackmailer.

You can hear the entire audio statement here.

On the morning of May 20, an hour before the first email was sent to Republicans, Eickholdt posted a single sentence status update on his Facebook page that read: “Sometimes I am asked to do things that I am uncomfortable doing”. He had hoped the outrageous story he had concocted, which described Courser as a “bisexual monster” and an alcoholic, would help him catch his blackmailers, the report added.

However, Courser said he won’t resign. In the recordings, Courser asks the aide, Ben Graham, to email Republican activists and operatives from an anonymous account to create “a complete smear campaign” about him.

According to Hall who broke the story on the cheating lawmakers in July after receiving forwarded emails from two inside sources – only to be accused of making it up – one of the same tipsters says that Courser was behind the anonymous flyer.

The business office for the Michigan House of Representatives worked throughout the weekend to examine e-mail and personnel records of state Reps.

In the recordings, Courser tells Graham that he and state Rep. Cindy Gamrat, with whom he took the unusual step of combining office operations, received identical text messages about their relationship that day from an unknown number.

Courser first identified Eickholdt by his nickname as someone who could send the email for him during a May 19 meeting with Graham at his Lapeer law office.

Neither Courser, a married father of 4, nor Gamrat, a married mom of three, instantly confirmed or denied having a sexual relationship through the recorded conversations.

Courser beat his opponent Jan Peabody by approximately 300 votes: 3,477 to 3,126.