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MSP passes Courser text scandal case to Lapeer prosecutor

Posted at 9:30 PM, Oct 29, 2015
and last updated 2015-10-29 22:23:55-04

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—The November election is just days away including a race for the 80th district seat in the state house.  It’s Cindy Gamrat’s old seat that they are fighting for, who’s also in the race trying to get it back after a bizarre scandal led to her removal, and another state rep’s resignation, Todd Courser.

An investigation into whether the freshman lawmakers misused taxpayer resources to hide the affair is still on-going by the Michigan State Police and the State Attorney General.

A separate state police investigation that’s moving forward has former representative Courser speaking out to Fox 17 News Thursday night.

The investigation is looking into extortion claims by Courser. He claims he received anonymous text messages threatening to expose the affair with Gamrat if he didn’t resign, and ultimately led to some bizarre actions by Courser himself in a plot to overshadow the affair he was going to release an e-mail accusing himself of sleeping with male prostitutes.

The Lapeer County Prosecutor told Fox 17 News that the state police have finished their investigation into the text messages, and have forwarded their findings to his office, but what was found, and what will come out of it, is still a big question.

“ You know people were looking at it and saying ‘you are just making up these stories to cover up for your past sins’, when in reality what was going on there was an extortion plot,” said Courser.

A plot to distribute a bizarre e-mail from Courser, accusing himself of sleeping with male prostitutes, was all an attempt to cover up an affair with fellow former freshman lawmaker, Cindy Gamrat.

“I cooperate with police because I want to clear my name,” said Courser.

Courser said the whole mess started because someone was blackmailing him through anonymous text messages, but there is talk Courser could have sent those text messages himself, cooking up the whole plot.

“Now the police report has been turned over to the local prosecutor and of course I am asking them to come out publicly and let people know I had nothing to do with the plot.”

Lapeer County Prosecutor, Tim Turkelson, confirmed they did have the report, but they have no opinion at this time, but might have one next week. Courser has political stake in them revealing the results of the investigation though.

“I think it’s really pertinent to the current campaign. This wasn’t something I made up, and certainly you know that information should be given to the public,” said Courser.

Courser sticking to his original story, promising there’s no surprise endings this time around.

This isn’t the only investigation into Courser and Gamrat, the state police and the attorney general’s office are looking into whether Courser and Gamrat broke any laws while attempting to cover up their affair.