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HomeNewsSex Scandal: US Gov in jail after violating campaign finances

Sex Scandal: US Gov in jail after violating campaign finances

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley has been booked in jail and charged with two counts of violating campaign finance rules, according to multiple reports.

Earlier Monday, multiple outlets reported that Bentley was set to resign following allegations that he abused his position as the state’s chief executive to cover up an affair with a former political adviser.

His decision comes as the state’s House of Representatives begins hearings on his impeachment.

Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey was expected to be sworn in to office on Monday. Ivey, 72, will be the state’s second-ever female governor following Democrat Lurleen Wallace, who served a 15-month term between 1967 and 1968.

Members of Alabama’s GOP have been calling for Bentley to step down in the year since news broke of a salacious phone call caught on tape between the governor, 74, and his former top aide, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, 45. During the recorded conversation, Bentley is heard professing his love for Mason and describes putting his hands on her breasts.

“Baby, let me know what I am going to do when I start locking the door,” Bentley told Mason. “If we are going to do what we did the other day, we are going to have to start locking the door.”

The governor’s ex-wife, Dianne Bentley, who filed for divorce in 2015 after 50 years of marriage, recorded the phone call in 2014 to determine if her then-husband was having an affair.

Mason immediately resigned after the recording surfaced, and while Bentley admitted to making the sexually charged comments, he refuted claims that he had been involved in a physical relationship with her.

Details pointing to a physical affair emerged in a damning report released Friday by Alabama’s state House Judiciary Committee. The report included accounts from the governor’s ex-wife and staff, who described suspicious text messages and encounters between Bentley and Mason.

“Mason bragged that Governor Bentley had called and told her that he had opened his hotel room door to hotel staff while clad in boxers, believing Mason was on the other side,” the report noted.

Bentley’s security chief described Mason leaving the governor’s office with “tousled hair and making adjustments to her wardrobe.”

Bentley had repeatedly denied any affair but vaguely admitted he “made mistakes” after the damming audio surfaced last year.

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The state’s Ethics Commission announced Wednesday that it found “probable cause” to believe Bentley misused state resources to cover up the affair and accused him of spending campaign cash to pay for Mason’s legal fees.

The Judiciary Committee also alleged Bentley intimidated staffers and law enforcement to keep quiet about his questionable relationship with Mason.

“[Bentley], in a process characterised by increasing obsession and paranoia, subjected career law enforcement officers to tasks intended to protect his reputation,” the committee wrote in their report.

Bentley, dubbed the “luv gov” by political commentators and bloggers, could face jail time if found guilty of the four felony charges suggested by the committee, which include violating at least one state ethics law and three campaign laws.

The Alabama Supreme Court approved impeachment proceedings Saturday. By Sunday, Alabama’s Republican Party passed a resolution calling for Bentley to immediately step down as governor.

“The overwhelming majority of elected officials are good, hard working people who love their communities, state and nation,” the party’s steering committee said in a statement. “However, when situations arise that are in direct conflict with the betterment of our people, we will speak up regardless of political party.”

Bentley previously denied any legal wrongdoing, tweeting last week that accusations he misused state funds were simply a “political attack.”

“I have done nothing illegal,” Bentley told reporters Friday. “If the people want to know if I misused state resources, the answer is simply no. I have not.”

Reports on Monday said that Bentley’s lawyers were in talks to negotiate his resignation as an impeachment trial loomed. Yasamie August, Bentley’s press secretary, told The Huffington Post on Monday that the governor was not “personally involved” in any negotiations.

One reporter said Bentley would face misdemeanour charges as part of his resignation deal.

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