Todd Courser.Photo: Dale G. Young/Detroit News via AP
A former Michigan lawmaker agreed to pay $20,000 toThe Detroit Newsto settle a defamation lawsuit he filed over coverage of a scheme he concocted to cover up a workplace affair.
The court docket states that a settlement was reached on Monday.
The parties had been set to appear for oral arguments the following day in an ongoing appeal of the lawsuit,according to aNewsarticleabout the settlement.
Former Rep. Todd Courser had originally filed the lawsuit against the paper in 2018 overa 2015 reportit published on his attempt to cover up an affair with another lawmaker.
Gary Miles, publisher and editor of theNews, said that Courser’s settlement “sends a message that frivolous lawsuits against news organizations for performing their duties under the First Amendment will not be taken lightly,“accordingto the Associated Press.
Courser did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on the settlement. His attorney told theNewsthat Courser wanted to “move on,” but the attorney insisted there had been “a strong case on appeal”
According to theNews, the settlement money will be donated to scholarships.
Courser, 48, resigned from the Michigan statehouse in 2015 after it was revealed he attempted to hide his extramarital relationship with a fellow Republican lawmaker, former Rep. Cindy Gamrat.
TheNewsreported that “interviews with former House employees and … recordings showed Courser and Gamrat used their taxpayer-funded offices to maintain and cover up their relationship.”
Todd Courser.David Eggert/AP/Shutterstock
Todd Courser.Dale G. Young /Detroit News via AP
The aide who made those recordings latertold ABC News: “I couldn’t believe what he was asking me. And I couldn’t do it.”
The fake email was part of Courser’s plot to try and convince his colleagues not to believe an anonymous accusation about his affair with Gamrat,The Detroit Free Pressreportedat the time.
A state probe then revealed the anonymous accusation ended up being from Gamrat’s husband, according to the newspaper.
Courser initially faced a felony charge over the matter,accordingto the AP, and potentially up to a year in jail before he pleaded “no contest” to a misdemeanor in 2019. There was not enough evidence to press charges against Gamrat, a judge said.
“This case has had a long, torturous history,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement at the time, according to theFree Press, “and his decision to acknowledge responsibility for his actions is long overdue.”
Courser told ABC in 2016: “Everybody would hear that I’m a believer in Christ. They wouldn’t hear the part that I’m failed and flawed, you know, like everybody else.”
source: people.com
