US senator to announce resignation over bathroom incident: reports

Sep 1, 2007, 5:00 GMT

U.S. Republican Senator Larry Craig from Idaho is pictured in these two police booking photos dated 11 June 2007. Craig pleaded guilty earlier this month to a misdemeanor charge following an incident at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport during which an undercover police officer investigating lewd conduct arrested him. EPA/Metropolitan Airports Commission Police Department

Washington - A US senator was expected to announce his resignation Saturday after pleading guilty to charges of disorderly conduct in a men's airport bathroom, according to media reports.

Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig was to make a statement Saturday afternoon, media cited local Idaho officials as saying. A number of politicians, including many from his own party, had been openly calling for Craig to resign since the details of his arrest at a Minneapolis airport emerged on Monday.

Craig, 62, was arrested in June amid a police sting operation over lewd behaviour and sexual activity in one of the airport's public bathrooms. He pleaded guilty in August to a lesser charge - disorderly conduct - and paid a 500-dollar fine, according to the Capitol Hill publication Roll Call, which broke the story.

Craig was also sentenced to 10 days in jail, which were suspended, and given a year's probation.

Republican leaders on Wednesday stripped Craig of his committee posts in the Senate and had reportedly drafted a statement calling for him to resign, the Washington Post reported. The statement was held back because local Idaho Republicans warned it may have had the opposite effect of making his departure more difficult.

The senator was expected to announce that he will step down on September 30. He had already resigned from a top post in Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's campaign.

Craig on Tuesday made a public apology for bringing a 'cloud' over his home state, and said he regretted his guilty plea.

'I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis airport ... and I regret the decision to plead guilty,' Craig said. 'I am not gay, I never have been gay.'

Details of Craig's unsavoury episode dominated US news programmes, newspapers and websites, and pressure for him to step down only increased after an audio tape was released of Craig's interrogation by Minneapolis police.