with the high standards they deserve, which i have set for myself. he goes on to say he s resigning for that reason. it s the questions over those standards and how he conducted his finances in his office that led him to do this. there has been a congressional ethics investigation opened into this. what this means, brooke is with his resignation, that means he cannot be investigated by the house ethics committee. they only have jurisdiction over sitting members of congress. so that, i m told, is why he resigned why he plans to step down at the end of the month, to stop that investigation. okay. we ll get into some of the examples and some of the questions that have been looked into in a second. jeff staying with you, from what i understand, this has been a slow drip drip drip from his office. you say it is a surprise on the hill. when did this first begin? well brooke it first began with the redecorating of his office shortly after the midterm
spending. in the end, this congressional ethics investigation into reports he used taxpayer money to fund lavish trips, redecoration of his office, et cetera cetera has proven too much for him to withstand. want to bring in our cnn senior washington correspondent and also our senior investigative correspondent, drew griffin, by phone, who recently profiled this congressman. jeff let me go to you first. we ll talk about how he was this rising young star in the republican party. but first, he s just released a statement. he s announced a resignation date. what did the statement say? that s right, brooke. this is really coming as a shock to all republicans on capitol hill. even republicans in speaker boehner s office and other leadership offices were not made aware of this. in this statement released a few moments ago, he says he s doing this with a heavy heart. but the constant questions over the last six weeks have proven a great distraction that has made it too difficult for me to se