UPDATE: AG Schuette says charges 'will stick'

LANSING, MI -- Former state reps Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat will face felony charges for their role in a scandal to cover-up their extramarital affair, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced Friday.

The charges, according to the attorney general's office, are:

Gamrat:

* Two charges of Misconduct in Office, MCL 750.505, a felony, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or a maximum $10,000 fine.

Courser:

* Three charges of Misconduct in Office, MCL 750.505, a felony, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or a maximum $10,000 fine.

* One charge of Perjury, MCL 750.423, a felony, with a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

The charges were filed this morning in Ingham County District Court, and both of the former lawmakers will be contacted by their attorneys and "have been offered the chance to turn themselves in to the Michigan State Police," according to the attorney general's office.

Arraignments have not yet been scheduled, but are expected soon after Courser and Gamrat are notified by their attorneys.

The affair was made public in early August, when Ben Graham, a former aide to Courser, released audio recordings of Courser asking him to help send a bizarre email in which the lawmaker accused himself of having sex with a male prostitute and doing drugs. Courser dubbed the strategy a "controlled burn" designed to discredit any revelations of his relationship with Gamrat.

Courser sent the email, which called Gamrat "a tramp, a lie and a laugh," to hundreds of Republicans on his email list, setting off what has become one of the most bizarre chapters in Lansing's political history.

Later, Courser admitted he sent the email because he was under intense pressure and receiving anonymous text messages threatening to expose the affair if he did not resign. The anonymous text messages, it was later revealed, were orchestrated by Cindy Gamrat's husband, Joe Gamrat.

An investigation by the House Business Office, ordered by Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant, found that Courser and Gamrat engaged in "deceptive, deceitful and outright dishonest conduct," and also accused the two of directing their staff to facilitate their affair and blurring the lines between official and political work.

In September, following a series of hearings, the state House voted to expel Gamrat, moments after Courser had resigned to avoid the same fate, making her just the fourth state lawmaker ever kicked out of office by her peers.

Brian McVicar covers education for MLive. Email him at bmcvicar@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter