GOP Indiana House Leader Resigns After Accidentally Texting Out Sex Tape of Him Cheating

Impact

Representative Jud McMillin, the Republican House majority leader in Indiana known for aggressively promoting family values, has been caught with his pants down. Literally. 

McMillin resigned on Tuesday after a sex tape of him cheating on his wife was mistakenly texted to several contacts in his phonebook the week prior. The Indianapolis Star reports it's unknown to whom the video was sent or how widely it was distributed. But as soon as he realized what was sent out, McMillin tried to defuse the situation by sending a text to his entire phonebook, according to the Advocate, which read:

My phone was stolen in Canada and out of my control for about 24 hours. I have just been able to reactivate it under my control. Please disregard any messages you received recently. I am truly sorry for anything offensive you may have received.

However, the damage was already done, and on Tuesday McMillin resigned his position.

"[I've] decided the time is right for me to pass the torch and spend more time with my family," McMillin said in a statement, reports the Indianapolis Star"Now I want to focus all of my attention on making my family's world a better place."

His colleagues did not object to his resignation from the House on Tuesday. "Our caucus is thankful for Representative McMillin's service to our state, and we fully support his decision to step down in order to focus on his family," Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma, a Republican, shared in a statement after McMillin's resignation, according to the Indianapolis Star.

McMillin had previously made a name for himself with his staunch social conservatism, cosponsoring the controversial "religious freedom" law and fighting against marriage equality. 

"I will protect the integrity of the institution of marriage," McMillin's campaign website read, the Advocate states. "In southeastern Indiana the family has always been the foundation of our strength of community. ... In these times of turmoil, the rest of the country could learn something from our example."

The representative has reportedly had problems with misconduct and the law in the past. McMillin was allegedly required to abandon his deputy prosecutor post after a domestic abuse victim he represented said she was intimidated into filing charges she did not want to file and having a sexual relationship with him, the Bilerico Project reports.