Affair investigation reaches Michigan Speaker of the House

State Representative Cindy Gamrat says she will break her silence Friday about her alleged affair with Todd Courser and his failed attempt to cover it up as the investigation reaches the office of the Speaker of the House.

The Chief of Staff for the Speaker of the house, Norm Saari, was at a confirmation hearing on his appointment to the State Public Service Commission but the first question had nothing to do with his appointment. It was related to the Courser/Gamrat situation when Saari was Chief of Staff to House GOP speaker Kevin Cotter.

Saari interviewed staffers who worked for the two lawmakers. They reportedly shared their concerns about what the legislators were doing.

Democratic Senator David Knezek wanted to know what Saari told the Speaker since there were allegations of misuse of public funds. He thinks the speaker should have acted in May rather than August to investigate.

"If we had staff members coming to the Speaker of the House and they have very serious allegations about what their bosses are doing, I would have taken those allegations far more seriously than what it appears the Speaker of the House did at that time.

The Speaker's office reports he found out about the allegations just recently.

"I think the speaker acted extraordinarily appropriately," Saari said he did nothing wrong and did not withhold information from the Speaker. "Everyone in my chain of command which includes the speaker and the legal council was always aware of what was going on."

The house investigation into what the two lawmakers did could wrap up next week. Meanwhile a resolution to expel Courser is reportedly being drafted. He has said he has not violated any laws.