can you come to my office? >> a late night in michigan. a mysterious phone call. inside, just one man. the face of christian family values, representative todd courser. he has a secret to bury, a steamy affair with a married colleague. his outlandish plan, laid out on a hidden recording, is to smear himself. >> so, when people find out that it came from you, they're going to ask, todd, what the hell are you thinking? >> making up something so outrageous, no one would believe it when the truth leaked out. >> are you a hypocrite?

as they speak about the outrageous national scandal. >> sex, lives, coverups. >> cheating on their spouses. >> and a laughing stock. >> that's the worst plan i've ever heard, and i'm i including trickle-down economics, the pull-out method, and the plot of "the parent trap." >> threatening texts. >> oh, my god. >> a secret affair >> wow. >> all leading to disorder in the house. >> you have power, politics, sex. >> thehe circus needs to go. a capital offense. >> i'm elizabeth vargas. >> and i'm david muir.

settle in for a mystery that you would believe. a politician that created a scandal to protect himself. >> the recordings, threats, and now the two at the center of the affair, speaking out to "20/20" about why there was such an attempt to cover it up. here's gio bitez, wi a capitaoffense. reporter: lansing, michigan, its modest skyline nestled around the noble d dome of t capitol, is normally the humdrum >> typical midwest town with typical midwest politics. >> reporter: but that all changed last january when two ambitious newcomers come to town. freshman representatives cindy gamrat -- >> i ran for office becacause i believe in freedom. >> reporter: and todd courser. >> we were going there on a mission. buttoned-down, plainspoken pols hail from opposite sides of the state.

here? >> there's 30, yeah. it's great for the children, sort of created a huck finn life. >> reporter: courser, a lawyer by trade, is from rural, religiouous lapeern the east. >> i think there's 112 churches. it's a very faith-based community. >> reporter: and gamrat, a homemaker and former nurse, from the modely titled town of plainwell in the west. it's beautiful. >> it's a wonderful place to live. >> reporter: their districts may be far apart but their polits can't be any closer. both staunch tea party, christian values conservatives and both married parents, firm believers in faith and family interesting, considering what's about to happen. >> he seemed to share the same values and the same principles as i had. >> reporter: what was partf your message? christian and family vues? >> send me to lansing to be a strong voice for liberty and our conservative values. >> mixed in with again, the government overreach. i believe our federal government is out of control.

principled. >> reporter: enter two key players, keith allard, who signs on as gamr's number two and ben graham, an old friend, who becomes courser's top aide. >> he's a very dynamic person. very engaging, charismatic. he definitely draws you in, and he knows that. i'm against this, thank you. >> reporter: last january, the two first-termers hit lansing like a cannonball determrmined to push their ultra-conservative agenda, even if it means fighting their own party. >> come hell or high water, we weren't going to cut a deal with the gop to sort of further ourselves politically. >> reporter: but the disruptive duo's sharp elbows approach alienate just about any potential ally they'd need to get their bills passed. >> todd actually kind of declared public warfare on his colleagues. >> they were just very suspicious that everybody was looking to stab them in the back. relationship courser and gamrat

the two are certainly close. they go on tv together and even combine their two staffs, running operations out of the same office. >> very unusual. as soon as they got here, people were talking about it. >> reporter: there are also frequent late night sessions that have the two overnighting at the downtown rasson hotel. >> we'd have lobbyists and fellow staff membebers ask uif they're having a relationship. but we also justst couldn' believe that these two would do something like that. >> doing great. >> reporter: yes, it is hard to believe. todd courser is married to his college sweetheart fon. they have four kids together, pick apples in their spare time. >> that's a good one, buddy. >> reporter: and cin gamrat is raising three kids of her own with her long-time husband joe. the kind of house mom you see smiling out of facebook photos, and price hunting in the produce aisle.

>> reporr: but the rumors mill keeps churning. and now somebody in this quiet capitol is doing more than talking. it looks like they're stalking. take a look at this. an uncredited photo of courser giving gamrat a foot rub in broad daylight while parked at a lansing strip mall. the photo is posted online after a nameless paparazzo delivers it to controversial political blogger brandon hall. >> it was just like, wow, i mean, "what is my representative doing right now in lansing?" they probably think they're in their office, they're voting. here they are in a parking lot, giving each other foot rubs. >> reporter: people were followining you gu. >> yeah. >> reporter: and taking these pictures of you. >> i know. car. >> and there was nothing happening in the car. >> reporter: okay, maybe not in the car, but there is quite a bit happening elsewhere,e, ecifically, that radisson. it turns out that courser and gamrat really are more than political bedfellows. >> it's your typical secret double life. they are putting themselves out there as these right-wing

fornicating behind the scenes. >> reporter: given your positions on family values, didn't you see it as a real risk that this affair was going on? >> in the beginning it doesn't happen that way. as you walked forward and all of a sudden before you know it, you're in a relationship with somebody. >> reporter: despite the happy photos, courser does acknowlededge that his marriage to fon was as cold and dead as an upper peninsula winter. >> it was a burden, tremendous burden. >> reporter:as there any moment where you just thought to yoself, todd, what the hell are you thinking? >> well, i mean, there was a bitterness and a hardness of heart. and at that point you don't even recognize yourself. >> reporter: are you a hypocrite? >> you know, it's tough because i think ere is a component of that. 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. but it was true. >> reporter: and what's representatitive gamras position on this issue? can you tell us what was going through your mind at the time? >> no.

to get into that. >> reporter: did you violate traditional family values? yeah. i di violated the covenant between a husband and a wife. >> reporter: the affair continues throughout the spring. so do the rumors and so do the denials. >> one of our staff said to them you need to consider the optics of the situation and they laughed it off. they just, it was a joke to them. >> reporter: but it's no laughing matter when the whiff of blackmail starts swirling around t couple. out of the blue, both gamrat and courser start receiving a series of texext messag threatening to expose their affair from an anonymous, disposable "burner phone." just look at some that courser saved. "cindy sounds like she's great in the sheets." "silence in this case can be very detrimental. it could be disastrous, really." the texter says he'll let "everybody off the hook on one condition only. you sign, todd." he made the same demand of gamrat. and adding teeth to the threat,

private phone calls and inside details of their trips. it's as if they knew your every move. >> they did know every move. they knew my e-mails out of my outbox even after i changed my password. they knew texts from my phone. >> reporter: the texter is someone close. someone withhe meansns and the will to destroy him. it's enough to put anyone on edge. > there w just a lot of stress. > reporte obviously, this was driving you to a breaking point. >> i would say that you couldn't have been in a lower spot. >> todd is usually very chipper and, a and sarcaic and fun, but there would be times where he would take things out on us with a great deal of anger. it was tough. it was very tough. >> reporter: and it's about get a lot tougher as representative courser concocts truly twisted plan to make his problems go away. >> he said, "ben, i need you to destroy me." and i paused for a second and i

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>> in a very, the most serious tone i've ever heard from him, he said, "i need you to destroy me. can you come t to my offe?" >> reporter: "destroy me?" fearing not only for his job but for his safety, graham immediately notifies his counterpart on cindy gamrat's staff, keith allard. >> this is a guy who has been showing increasingly unstable signs in terms of his anger issues. there's a 20% chance he might act out violently towards himself or others, and he kept a loaded gun in that offffice. so i advised ben, "record the conversation." >> what's going on? you're freaking me out. >> reporter: so, with his all-hearing phone recording everything, graham sits down across from courser's desk and gets the shock of a lifetime. it turns out courser wants graham to send an anonymous e-mailo fellow republicans. and it ain't about tax reform. >> it's already written. i didn't print it. i don't know what god will do, buddy. todd couer caughon tape behind lansing nightclub. in truth, courser secretly removed from caucus several weeks ago due to a male on male paid for sex. he is a bisexual porn-addicted

>> reporter: your ears aren't deceiving you. courser has concocted an e-mail to shovel dirt on himself for scandalous behavior. and check out the potty-mouth on this devout christian. >> and then you just get nasty about it. his [ bleep ] is hanging out all over lansingng since t electction. gun-toting, bible-thumping, [ bleep ] freak. he doesn't work in lansing. he's just there feeding his habit of alcohol, drugs and illicit sex. >> what he was telling me literally blew me away. i did not expect that that would happen, that he would say those things. >> reporter: and it just gets crazier because courser insists that none of these scandalous claims are true. in fact, they're absurd. but that's the whole point. >> i'm not a homosexual. i don't do alcohol, i don't do drugs, right. >> that's what i mean. that's why it's not believable. >> right, they don't know that. people are so disturbed. they won't print it. bubut anythi after that is going to be suspect. it'll be looking, looking like a complete smear campaign.

that?" courser is clearly anticipating that the mystery texter will be exposing his love affair with cindy gamrat any day now. >> stuff's going to comeut, benjamin, and they're going to implicate myselfnd cindy gamrat. >> reporter: courser's hope is that the phony smear will somehow thwart the extortion scheme of the mysterious texter by diverting attention from the affair. >> i'm going to start a rumor that i'm having sex with gay prostitutes all over lansing and that's going to make the affair with cindy seem like nothing. and nothing's going to stick to the wall because it's so slimy. >> people will see it and they'll be like, "holy [ bleep ]! what is that?" >> you know, i even hear my voice. i don't even recognize who i am. >> reporter: so when people find out that it came from yoand it's about you, they're going to ask, are you crazy? >> yeah, it's inside of that at

at, this personally. >> reporter: why did you decide to go with the storyne of a gay prostitute? i mean, did you think -- >> it was so -- it was so ridiculous. it was really over the top. i know it was offensive to the homosexuals. it was completely ridiculous, and i didn't mean it. >> rorter: but what about gamrat's role in the scheme? on the recording, courser says she is down with the plan. >> hey, we agree. >> who? >> cindy and i. >> on this? >> yeah. reporter: right there, he says you both agreed on this. is h he lying? >> well, when i heard that audio, what ran through my mind is, why did he say this? >> reporter:r: so this-mail, for you, came out of left field. >> yes. >> reporter: so that was a lie? >> yeah, oh, absolutely. >> reporter: back in that law office, courser's demented plan has litt appeal for his aide ben graham. remember, urser wants aham to send the e-mail for him. instead, the trusted aide says he walks o out of thmeeting shaken and alarmed. >> i couldn't believe he was asking me, and i, i couldn't do

i texted him back and said, "todd, i can't help you do this. i can't help you cover it up." >> i think loyalty went out the window for the sffers. >> reporter: undeterred, courser sends out the self-incriminating e-mail himself under a fake name to a republican mailing list. "breaking scandal" blared the subject line. indeed, it feels like this scandal has crossed into olivia p pope's tu. >> in this town, your career is over. >> reporter: and yet, despite hitting his self-destruct button, courser does not self-destruct. the e-mail gets little notice. the slea bomis a dud. >> i sort of dismissed it, because i thout, well, i hear a lot of weird stuff in politics and a lot of slanderous things are said about a lot of people. >> reporter: better still, the tormenting texter r never foows through with the threats. did you think, "i'm going to get away with this?" >> i don't think it was really to get away with it.

in your life you say, "it was a crazy time." >> reporter: but then, courser and gamrat give themselves more bad advice, and follow it. that summer, for reasons now in litigation, they decide to cut off their own right hands, ben graham a keith allard, citing poor performance. >> they came into work late. they wouldn't show up when they were required to. >> reporter: these are the guys who know all your secrets. >> they do. >> reporter: was it the smart idea to fire them? >> there's no way that they were competent and that they should be there. >> reporter: maybe so, but hell hath no fury like a staffer scorned. >> i felt that it s impoant for people to know the truth about these people, and what theyere doing. >> reporter: coming up, those confidants double-cross the boss. and todd courser finally hits the national political stage,

>> it's true. he sent an anonymous e-mail accusing himself of an affair. >> my very first reaction was, "oh, my god. this is huge." >> reporter: how will the betrayed spouses take the news? >> what was going through your mind when he fir told you what was going on? >> reporter: and the fight for their political lives. what will the punishment be for their capital offense? ...nashville. kfc's new nashville hot chicken. crispy, hand prepared chicken with a legendary blend of spicy and smoky flavors. you know, in hindsight, i probably shoulda just started in nashville.

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with the playback. >> i thought their families needed to know, it needed to come out, so they could deal with it. >> sat down with these two men and they started to play this tape for me. >> todd courser caught on tape. >> yep. that recording. >> it was shocking, it was unbelievable. i could instantly see how this was going to be a powerful story. >> reporter: on august 7th, livengood's story detonates on the front page, setting off a media frenzy. >> the bizarre situation. >> sex and coverup scandal. >> reporter: for reporter jim kiertzner of abc detroit affiliate wxyz the story is prime red meat as courser's supporters go into bunker mode. >> you're a reportrter out f his blood! >> no one in michigan has seen

three decades. >> cover up the adultery with lies. >> juicylement after juicy element after juicy element. i spent days and days on the ououtside ofis little law office. >> when are you going the take some accountability questions, si why are you highding. >> reporter: for weeks, you're dodging reporters. >> a few weeks. at least three weeks. >> reporter: through it all, mrs. courser stands by her man. >> what was going through your was going on? >> i was pretty calm when he first told me. now it was subsequent days after that i didn't handlele it so wl. but we're working it out. you can't really p point a fger at sebody when they do something and when they fall, , because we all fall. we all make mistakes. >> reporter: meanwhile,

there was nothing plain or well at the gamrat residence. so cindy, what was that next morning like when the news broke? >> we had scheduled for that day to go to the zoo and of course the media came, they were outside. we said, okay let's, you know, let's make a beeline for the, for the truck. >> reporter: eventually the scandal goes national. >> intentionally leaked a fake news story about hiring a male prostitutute. >> reporter: and it's irresistible to tv comics. >> it's the worst plan i ever heard, and i'm including trickle-down economics, the pull-out method, and the plot of the parent trap. >> reporter: here you are on

shows, you're the butt of jokes. >> yeah. >> reporter: what's that like? >> i'm pretty tough, my blood pressure doesn't go up a whole lot, uh, but this was tough. >> reporter: one week later -- >> just want to thank my family. >> reporter: gamrat takes her place in the pantheon of cheating politicians who issue public apologies with stoic spouses by their side. >> my husband joe -- >> reporter: joe gamrat looks on, his face bereft of that family-photo smile. what about your husband? has he since forgiven you? >> he says he has, and i believe he has. >> i'm not here to resign today, i'm here to say i'm sorry. >> reporter: but sometimes sorry doesn't cut it. >> they need to resign immediately. >> todd, say it's over. just step down. >> r reporter:ith all the christian values here, it must have rocked this community. >> it did. i mean, i really rocked our small town. >> reporter: did they start

christian? >> oh, absolutely. a lot of the times the most unforgiving people are people who profess christ. >> reporter: i've bet you taken some hard questions from them. >> you know, some people really relish watching somebody burn. just love it. and it's sick and it's evil and it's demonic. >> reporter: and remember -- gamrmrat and crser already have plenty of enemies within their own party. now the political knives are out. >> their scandal was dragging everybody down. they were embarrassing the leaders. they we embarrassing the party. >> reporr: the house launches an investigation which finds numerous instances of deceptive, deceitl, and outright dishonest conduct by both representatives, and says they abused their offices in attempting to cover it up. >> it's not always the scaal. it's the coverup. >> reporter: claims that, to ththis day, th courser and gamrat strongly deny. >> no coent right now. >> are you humiliated by this? they're recommending that you be expelled. is that appropriate, sir? >> reporter: that sets the stage for a dark and dramatic night under the capitol dome last september. there's no death penalty in

an execution. >> by then the republicans and the leaders and everybody had said we got to toss out the trash. >> stand against deceion, disdain and disrespect. >> reporteter: while representative ed mcbroom and others lobby for expulsion, courser is not about to go gentle into that good night. >> i had no intentions of resigning. i was, i'm a gladiator, i'm a warrior. i would ask that you note no on expelling me. >> reporter: but as the clock strikes 12:00 it becomes clear. the gladiator is being fed to the lions. >> unfit to serve. >> very dramatic. we could see that he was on the house floor lobbying colleagues, pleading to stay. >> they were not letting us leave until they got an expulsion out of me.

>> and you know, i just felt like it was done and i walked up d just said hey, you know, i, you know, i'm going to resign. >> reporter: escorted by red-coated security guards, courser makes his exit. were you devastated? >> no, you know, those lead blankets that they put on you at the dentist, it was like 20 of those came off me as i walked out the door. and i got in my truck and drove away. i think i got about five miles and i just pulled into a parking lot, and i just turned the truck off ani didn't move for 12 hours. you've let down so many people and, god, if i could go back and undo it, you know, lord knows i would. >> reporr: back in the house chamber, it's 4:00 in the morning and it's cindy's turn to ascend the scaffold. she says she, too, thought about simply throwing in the towel. >> the other representative had resigned, and i panicked a little bit.

hostility, cindy finds a rock of support. her 18-year old son joey. >> in my m mind, resning is giving up the fight befofore you get to actually fight. >> he said, stay and fight. he said, okay mom, take a deep breath and hold your head high. >> you're going to walk in, you're going to act like you own e place. >> i can't go back and change the past. the only thing i can do is try to go forward and do it better. and still believe that my actions w warrant censure, but not expulsion. >> reporter: gamrat pleads her case a final time but the house has heard enough. they vote 91-12 to expel her. she is escorted out with her head held high, making michigan history as the first woman to be expelled from the chamber. i mean, this is everything you

>> i know. >> reporter: and here it is in one night. gone. >> this isn't how i pictured it. regardless of all this pressure. sorry. it's not how i wanted it to go. >> two michigan lawmakers are out of office. >> reporter: their political obituaries are written. >> a strange end to an even stranger scandal. >> it was the ultimate final curtain for both of them. >> reporter: but sometimes final curtains aren't so final. >> get this! >> just the latest twist. >> reporter: it's gamrat and courser, the sequel! they're not ready to give up the spotlight yet and they want to shine it on whoever was sending those mystery texts that led to their downfall. stay with us.n you help? start with the millions of used cars for sale at the new carfax.com! show me cars with no accidents.

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>> "20/20" continues with a capital offense. >> reporter: t they're sry. they're ashamed. but todd courser and cindy gamrat are not about to let trifles like their tabloid sex scandal and expulsion from office dash their ambitions. >> todd courser now saying he will run for re-election after giving up his seat just a week ago. >> reporter: yep, brazen as it may seem, todd and cindy have ended their afaffair, bunow they want to continue their political careers. >> they're almost in denial. they didn't look at themselves the way everybody else in michigan did. >> reporter: why are you running again?

the matter at all. >> reporter: plenty of other candidates are vying for the seats too, but gamrat and courser have something the competition lacks. >> i have the highest name id, i think, of anybody that's ever run for state house. i think what has happened has sort of elevated me to, you know, in some way to mythical status. say, "come on, name that's the reason you wouldn't be voted for. i certainly have the best name >> reporter: is it for the right reasons? the people should have an opportunity to make their choice. >> reporter: but back in lansing, their former colleagues aren't exactly eager to welcome them back. >> is a continuation of the bizarre behavior. i think it showed contempt for the system. it showewed their ntempt for the voters. >> it's not about me, it's about the people. >> reporter: courser and gamrat say they are still the most conservative candidadates runng. >> now, the voters will be able

>> reporter: and now they just want to make laws, not love. november 3rd, election day, judgment day, and "20/20" is there. a prayer is very much in order. >> what's going through your mind today? >> obviously it's a huge day and you got all the emotions of all this happening. >> reporter: courser spends the day chatting up reporters and voters, while gamrat makes some last-minute calls to constituents. >> i was just calling to encourage you to vote today. >> reporter: courser stays loose, toying with his dog, coco. >> do you want the pizza or do you want the ball? >> reporter: but as the results trickle in -- >> todd courser r and cin gamrat will not be going back to lansing.

electorate's love affair with the two tea partiers is kaput. cindy gets just 9% of the vote. >> what was going through your results? it's been a hard road. we've given it our best. i'm exhausted. >> reporter: as for courser, he gets a backwoods whupping, garnering less than 4%. >> gary howell won. there's mine, 299. and he ended up with 2,263. >> reporter: the bad news, he lost an election. the good news, his wife, fon, is still there, faithfully, with open arms. >> it's okay. it's politics. it will take me a while to kind of heal from that and take some steps forward. >> reporter: post-election, courser retreats back to his law office in lapeer to lick his wounds. but there's some unfinished business fevering his brain. he just can't get over those mysterious text messages that hit his iphone last may. remember, a hidden extortionist threatened to reveal the affair unless he and gamrat resigned, harassment which, courser maintains, sent him over the

do you believe at that point >> the texter is requiring me to resign. it felt like there was a bigger >> reporter: courser won't stop until he gets some answers. and that investigation will bring this story to its unlikely conclusion at this unexpected lotion, with an even more surprising suspect. was courser up to his old trks again? you wrote that e-mail. why wouldn't you send those texts? the twists and turns lead to the mystery texter. >> i remember reading the report and, and just shaking and not wanting to believe what i was reading. >> reporter: when "20/20" returns. song: "that's life"

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"20/20" continues, with a capitol offense. >> reporter: for months, it's mysteries in michigan politics. who was the shadowy figure who sent those blackmail texts to threatening to expose their affair unless they resigned? the guy who helped put the whole >> there was this guessing game about who sent the texts. it was the hottest guessing game in town. >> reporter: remember, the mystery texter somehow knew private details of todd and cindy's phone calls, e-mails and even their schedule. >> not many people had the inside information of what was going on. >> reporter: leading courser to

trusted aide. someone like ben graham or keith allard, possibly spilling secrets to his political enemies. >> i would say that somehow the texters are connected to the staff in some way to be able to get the information they had. >> i mean, i 100% assure you right now that it was not us. >> for him to say that we wewere involved in blackmailing him is laughable becausif the texter asked him to resign, i don't have a job anymore. >> reporter: the texter had warned courser that his "phone was a burner," a disposable phone, so "don't bother trying" to trace it. then, a breakthrough, when a private investigator hired by cindy's attorney is able to trace the name on the phone's account. get ready for this, it was a certain "c livingood," the name of the detroit news reporter who broke the story, chad livengood. >> my initial reaction was that's not surprising that somehow they're going to try to pin this on me.

because i had nothing to do with it. >> reporter: and check out that spelling.. most print reporters know how to write their own name. >> mine's with an e-n and this said i-n-g-o-o-d. >> reporter: then, another startling twist. the blog mlive.com hires its own p.i. to look into the burner phone and this time a different name is uncovered. none other than todd courser. >> courser had a crazy scheme in mind. a lot of people were wondering, are these texts were real or are these e texts pa of courser playing the victim again? >> reporter: you wrote that e-mail. why wouldn't you senthose texts? >> obviously my credibility was already shot. >> reporter: courser is so determinined to clr his name and catch the real culprits, he walks into the state police headquarters in lansing, demanding the cops launch a criminal investigation. >> i was hoping they would take it seriously and look through it. they didn't. the officer there said, "we know

you just nd to confess and you shouldn't make false police reports." >> reporter: eventually the police do launch an investigation and are able to track gps locations from the burner phone to the town of port huron, michigan. specifically to here, the domtar paper plant. >> reporter: investigators make a shocking discovery. there's a trtraveling emical salesman working at t that pla. a person very close to gamrat's family. believe it or not,er own husband, joe. police report. i remember reading the report and, and just shaking and not wanting to believe what i was reading. >> reporter: according to the report, an accomplice at the plant bought the phone "with money provided by joe gamrat" and gamrat "would tell him what to text." apparently, they were also assigng the misleading names the scent. allegations and although he was prosecutor declined to press

vindicated? >> oh, sure. >> reporter: you felt like, see, i told you so, i wasn't the >> right, yeah, obviously. >> repter: t the recor also show that gamrat exchanged dozens of texts and calls with graham and allard. unusual. times inquiring about cindy's whereabouts. what was unusual was what gamrat did with that information. for instance, last february, joe gamrat followed his wife to the now infamous radisson hotel in downtown lansing and called allard to tetell him wt he discovered. and in that phone call he said cindy's husband joe actually saw cindy leaving one of these hotel rooms, todd courser's s hotel room, early in the morng. >> he went back to his car, called her and she picked up and said, why are you calling me, i've been sleeping for hours. and he said, really? yeah, i've been asleep, like why are you waking me up? >> reporter: this was just the

the police report revealed that even as joe gamrat was standing beside his wife in public, in private, he'd become obsessed with tracking her. spying on cindy for months and planting surveillance devices in her bag d car. remember those photos of courser giving cindy a foot rub in a lansing parking lot? well, police found foot rub shots of the two on joe gamrat's iphone. >> the level of the spying he was doing on his own wife was intense and amazing. i did not expect that. >> when that is happening to you, it's really traumatizing and there's a a fear comnent, and when, feeling of not feeling safe and secure. >> reporter: and what does joe gamrat have to say about all of this? so we've tried reachining e gamrat, we've texted him, we've called him, no response yet. so now were going to go to his house, see him in person to see if he has anything to say about this. gamrat did come out to speak with us, but he wouldn't go on

this whole thing behind him. >> joe gamrat is still the mystery man. if there's a cliffhanger in this story, it's joe gamrat. >> reporter: when we return, their political careers are over, and now maybe their marriages are too. >> it's hard cause it's cold out. >> reporter: why is cindy gamrat sleeping in a parking lot?jack swift justice for an iowa man who killed two people stephanie: the suprising courtroom events today that brought this case to a quick ending. brad: weather ad lib i don't want to live with the uncertainties of hep c. or wonder whether i should seek treatment. i am ready. beuse today there's harvoni. a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. harvoni is proven to cure up to 99% of patients who've had no prior treatment.

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where she spends her nights when r husband joe comes home from his business trips on short notice. >> but i'll tell you, when it's really cold you wake up, start the car and let it warm up. and i have a sleeping bag and blankets and that, so it stays warmer. >> reporter: today, cindy is preparing for a divorce. even though she cheated, she says it's joe who went too far. with his alleged stalking and extortion. she says she no longer feels safe to be in the house with him,m, despitehe kids they are raising. asas for heruture, well, she's starting an advocacy website to help others who have been put under surveillance by their spouses. >> i just hope something good can come out of this. because it's all been bad. it's all been so bad. >> reporter: but while the gamrats' marriage is over, courser's is moving forward. he says the scandal made him and fon take a hard look at why their marriage was so troubled. they have now entered counseling

union. >> we want to heal our marriage, and we want to stickck togethe and -- >> reporter: and that's what i want to ask you about. you forgive him? >> i forgive him. you know, saying you want to forgive someone is so much easier than actually doing it, and it's a work in progress. >> reporter: it may be true that a house divided against itself cannot stand. and while courser may never again set t foot in e state house, for now, this house will have to be good enough. >> if i take my sweater off, i still have a cannonball hole through me. it was a chapter in my life. i think you just keep taking steps forward in life and i'm looking forward to what god has in the future. and each day is a new adventure. >> so, todd courser and his wife

the question tonight, would you do thego up in flames. now the administration is looking into channg how they handle student tickets. local five news at 10 is next. jack: