Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter abruptly announced his resignation effective June 1 on Wednesday, saying that “certain personal matters that are becoming public will become a distraction for this office.”
The Republican official’s announcement immediately raised a host of questions, to which the Oklahoman, a paper based in Oklahoma City, soon offered some answers.
The paper reported Wednesday that Hunter’s resignation comes as it investigates an extramarital affair that it reports the 64-year-old attorney general had with a state employee who did not work in his office. The paper said it had confirmed the affair through people familiar with the situation and submitted questions to Hunter about it on Tuesday night.
On Friday, Hunter filed for divorce from his wife and fellow attorney Cheryl, to whom he was married for 39 years according to the Oklahoman, on Friday.
“I am heartbroken and my priorities are to take care of my sons, my daughter-in-law, my grandson and my parents,” Cheryl Hunter told the Oklahoman on Tuesday.
The attorney general had been tapped by former Gov. Mary Fallin (R) in 2017 to replace Scott Pruitt, who joined the Trump administration as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator until he resigned in disgrace over an avalanche of absurd scandals.
Hunter was reelected in 2018 for a four-year term and was planning to run again in 2022, per the Oklahoman. Prior to his appointment as attorney general, Hunter served as Pruitt’s chief legal adviser from June 2015 to October 2016. He also previously served as secretary of state plus six terms as a GOP state lawmaker in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt will choose a replacement for Hunter.
