BREAKING NEWS: Alabama’s Governor Robert Bentley resigns, tells Alabama citizens he loves them

First he said he was guilty, then he was arrested. After that, he resigned.

As of 5 PM Monday, Alabama Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey received Governor Robert Bentley’s resignation letter.

This comes immediately after Bentley pleaded guilty to two charges: a failure to file campaign reports and converting campaign funds illegally for personal use. The charges arose amid a scandal involving Bentley and a political advisor, Rebekah Caldwell Mason.

According to WVTM 13, the judge asked Governor Bentley if he was guilty, and Bentley replied, “Yes, sir.”

If you want to read the saucy texts and “scathing details“, you can check them out here, via a website set up by the impeachment commission.

Bentley was booked into the Montgomery County Jail Monday on charges related to impeachment proceedings against him. The impeachment hearings started today, and Bentley was booked into jail only hours after they started. He resigned about an hour after smiling for his mug shot.

The former governor was fined $2k, plus fines and court costs (around $37k), and he must reimburse the campaign more than $8K, as well as surrender all campaign funds to the state of Alabama.

Although he received 30 days in jail for each charge, the judge suspended the sentence. He will not serve time behind bars.

Bentley addressed the public and media briefly about 5:10 pm, saying that he hasn’t always made the right choices or said the right things and that he has sometimes failed. During his farewell address he repeatedly told the crowd that he loved the state of Alabama and its citizens.

“I always tried to live up to the expectations of the esteemed office,” Bentley said.

Bentley went onto to admit that there have been times he let down the people of Alabama and that he is sorry for that.

“I can no longer allow my family, my dear friends, my dedicated staff and cabinet to be subjected to the consequences that my past actions my have brought on them,” Bentley said.

He went on to to thank God and Jesus for mercy and thanked all the people who have been praying for him.

“This Easter week I am even more grateful for a loving and merciful Savior, who will always love me and you, unconditionally,” Bentley said.

Bentley said he will focus on other more effective areas of service and realizes that there are more important things than being Governor of Alabama.

Ivey will be sworn in as Alabama’s new Governor at 6 pm. She will be the second female Governor of Alabama. Lurleen Burns Wallace was the first, from January 1967 until her death in May, 1968.