Attorney: Rep. Gamrat to break her silence Friday

LANSING – State Rep. Cindy Gamrat, who Friday is to break a week-long silence in a cover-up scandal related to an extramarital affair with another state lawmaker, has given no indication she intends to announce her resignation, despite calls to do so from Capitol colleagues and the public.

Andrew Abood, an East Lansing attorney with a practice that includes criminal defense law, said Thursday he is representing Gamrat, R-Plainwell, and "she's going to address some of the issues that she feels need to be addressed. "I'm not sure that she'll be taking any questions," Abood said.

A 2 p.m. news conference -- which may include only Gamrat reading a statement -- is scheduled at Abood's law office.

Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, said he didn’t know what Gamrat would say Friday, but he thinks resignations from both would be best in terms of allowing them to achieve their top priorities of healing their families.

Also calling for resignations are two closely aligned tea party members, state Reps. Gary Glenn, R-Midland, and Lee Chatfield, R-Levering.

“It’s very, very discouraging to have two people I thought were really above that type of behavior engaging in that kind of behavior,” Runestad said. “The whole way it was attempted to be covered up was just beyond my imagination.”

Former state Rep. Fulton Sheen, R-Plainwell, who held the seat Gamrat now holds, said he has been an enthusiastic supporter of Gamrat, who he describes as intelligent and highly articulate.

"I don’t think that Cindy is as far out or frankly as wacko as Mr. Courser, but at the same time, because of what has happened, it’s hard to trumpet and stand for the things she stands for," he said. " ... The most admirable thing to do is to step down. She has everything, all the rudimentary things to be successful. But you also have to be able to work with other people.

"There are all kinds of people who would have worked with her in Lansing, but she just wasn't interested," Sheen added.

The House Business Office is investigating whether Courser and Gamrat broke House rules or used taxpayer-funded office staff or equipment to cover up an extramarital affair.

Courser said in an audio statement on Monday that he told staffers to send out a bogus e-mail accusing him of a porn addiction and paying for sex with a man outside a Lansing nightclub in the hopes it would smoke out the identity of an anonymous person he says was threatening to expose his affair with Gamrat if he didn't resign his House seat. In the audio recording, he also blamed the Lansing establishment "mafia" and former staffers for trying to orchestrate the end of his career.

Both Courser and Gamrat are married with children. The tea party activists are among the most conservative in the Legislature and advocate Christian morality and traditional marriage.

Under state law, lawmakers can't use their campaign funds to pay for lawyers they use to help get them out of trouble and must set up a legal defense fund even if they plan to use their own money to pay the attorney.

Meanwhile, Norm Saari, who was chief of staff for Speaker of the House Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant, when the rumors first started buzzing about the scandal, said while he won't comment on the situation while the investigation is ongoing, he passed along all information he had to leadership after talking with the former staffers.

"Everyone in my chain of command was always aware of what was going on," he said. "And the speaker has acted extraordinarily appropriately. I have full faith that they’ll get to all the information that’s relevant."

The speaker's office has said that they didn't know the extent of the cover-up until audio recordings surfaced late last week of Courser talking about the fake e-mail with a former staffer.

Saari said he is scheduled to meet with the House Business Office next week for an interview about his knowledge of the scandal.

Sen. David Knezek, D-Dearborn Heights, said Thursday after a hearing to confirm Saari as the latest appointee to the Michigan Public Service Commission, that the speaker's office should have acted much sooner on the alleged cover-up of the affair.

"We’re reading reports every day that the staffers went to the speaker and chief of staff back in May and here we are in August when the story is finally breaking; that’s a real problem," he said. "I would have taken the allegations far more seriously than what it appears the speaker of the House did at the time."

Abood is a former member of the state Civil Service Commission.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.