The 130-page summary of the committee's investigation-which merited its own web domain-reads more like a rejected Nancy Meyers script treatment than the result of a government investigation: texted professions of undying love, indiscreet assignations in the governor's office, and accusations that the governor directed a bodyguard to break up with his mistress for him.
Ivey, 72, was sworn in as the 54th Governor of the conservative southern US state by Acting Chief Justice Lyn Stuart. But dating back to the inauguration of its first Republican governor of modern times, Alabama has a history of its highest-ranking politicians being convicted of crimes, removed from office, or both.
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley resigned on Monday April 10 after pleading guilty to two campaign misdemeanors amid allegations that he misused public resources to pursue an affair with a former aide. The state suspended Chief Justice Roy Moore from his job a year ago after a conviction for violating judicial ethics with an order against gay marriage.
When former House Speaker Mike Hubbard was forced from office last summer after his conviction on charges of soliciting business from lobbyists and corporate executives, he, too, was replaced by a Republican.
He said he would work with his replacement, Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey, who was sworn in as governor about an hour after his resignation.
"It will be transparent".
Bentley said he had prayed about it and talked it over with his successor, Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey, and they were committed to a smooth transfer of power.
But sensing an opening in a deeply conservative state where Christian values play well at election time, state Democrats pounced. As she was sworn in on Monday, Ivey became the first Republican woman to occupy the state office and the fifth woman to now serve as a governor nationwide.
The outgoing governor, who is leaving office in the middle of his second term, has been plagued by scandal since the revelation of an affair with his former senior political adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, came to light a year ago.
No consensus in G7 on sanctions on Russia
Syria has denied it carried out a chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun last week that left 89 people dead. The resulting political talks would take place under the auspices of the United Nations process in Geneva.
Governor Robert Bentley, 74, pleaded guilty in an agreement with prosecutors on Monday to two misdemeanour campaign violations and is barred from seeking public office again.
Former Alabama Secretary of Law Enforcement Spencer Collier also blew the whistle as concerned Bentley security officer Ray Lewis played the audio footage for him as recorded by Bentley's wife. The report portrayed the governor as paranoid and obsessed with trying to keep the relationship secret.
After Bentley agreed to the deal, the Alabama House Judiciary Committee suspended hearings which began on Monday that could have led to his impeachment.
Bentley was addressing the media Monday afternoon at the Alabama Capitol.
In a brief statement to his staffers, who applauded as he approached the microphones, Bentley said, "there have been times that I have let you and our people down, and I'm sorry for that". He acknowledged wrongly using campaign money to pay nearly $9,000 for her legal bills and failing to properly report a $50,000 loan he made to his campaign. State law says major contributions should be reported within a few days.
"He did what he did, and he deserves now to be called a criminal", Ellen Brooks, a retired district attorney overseeing the state investigation, told the news site. In 2009, state Democrats and Republicans voted unanimously to remove Blagojevich and to bar him from holding political office in IL again.
Rod Blagojevich became the first Democrat elected as governor of IL in 30 years in 2002 and was sworn in for a second term in January 2007.
Alabama's first female governor was Lurleen Wallace, wife of four-term Gov. George C. Wallace. She ran as a surrogate for her husband in 1966 when he couldn't seek re-election because of term limits. She won, but died in office in 1968.
Ivey's biography shows her as an accomplished stateswoman who got her start in Alabama politics as a House clerk and later became the first Republican elected treasurer since Reconstruction.
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