Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber kisses his fiance, Cylvia Hayes, after being sworn in for an unprecedented fourth term. AP/Don Ryan Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) finally announced his resignation on Friday after a week of strange actions and corruption allegations.



He's set to leave office at 10:00 a.m. next Wednesday.

"I am announcing today that I will resign as Governor of the State of Oregon," Kitzhaber said, according to remarks released by his office. "I understand that I have become a liability to the very institutions and policies to which I have dedicated my career and, indeed, my entire adult life."

Although the controversy has taken multiple twists and turns, the main scandal involves Kitzhaber's fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, who is the target of a corruption investigation, according to ABC News. "Hayes is under scrutiny for allegedly using her relationship with Kitzhaber to land contracts for her business as a clean-energy consultant," the outlet reported. Additionally, his office reportedly ordered the destruction of thousands of his emails.

Perhaps the most bizarre moment of his scandal came Tuesday, when Kitzhaber reportedly decided to resign but abruptly changed his mind. Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown (D), who will replace him as governor, said Kitzhaber called her and asked her to return to their state from Washington.

"It was a brief meeting. He asked me why I came back early from Washington, DC, which I found strange. I asked him what he wanted to talk about. The governor told me he was not resigning," she said in a statement, according to Talking Points Memo. "This is clearly a bizarre and unprecedented situation."

Oregon's state senate president and house speaker reportedly met privately with Kitzhaber and directly told him it was time to resign.

"He was upset," the Senate President Peter Courtney (D) said at a press conference to discuss the meeting. "He was defiant. He was struggling."

In his Friday announcement, Kitzhaber lamented that his "former allies" were so quick to turn on him based on unproven allegations.

"I must also say that it is deeply troubling to me to realize that we have come to a place in the history of this great state of ours where a person can be charged, tried, convicted and sentenced by the media with no due process and no independent verification of the allegations involved," he said. "But even more troubling – and on a very personal level as someone who has given 35 years of public service to Oregon – is that so many of my former allies in common cause have been willing to simply accept this judgment at its face value."

Brown will be the first openly bisexual governor in the US.

This story was updated at 3:18 p.m. after his office announced his resignation.