Rep. Chris Lee (R-N.Y.) announced early Wednesday evening that he will resign his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Huffington Post reports:

Buffalo-based station YNN relays a statement from Lee, who has signaled that he will vacate his post immediately:

“It has been a tremendous honor to serve the people of Western New York. I regret the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents. I deeply and sincerely apologize to them all. I have made profound mistakes and I promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness. 
“The challenges we face in Western New York and across the country are too serious for me to allow this distraction to continue, and so I am announcing that I have resigned my seat in Congress effective immediately.”

News of Lee’s decision to step down comes just hours after it was reported that the married congressman sent shirtless photos of himself to a woman who he connected with on the “Women Seeking Men” section of Craigslist. I won’t post the picture here. It’s distasteful. 

There are so many sex scandals going on with high level officials, married men and women – seems like it’s across the board. It’s sad really, because after they’ve been caught, the remorse comes pouring out about how sorry they are and they’ve ruined their lives. I’m going to do several follow up posts on why I think people like Chris Lee get caught up in these circumstances and it ties into this post on Shame.

HuffPost’s Ni
ck Wing reported earlier in the day:

According to Gawker, the 46-year-old married Republican responded to a listing posted last month by a 34-year-old woman looking for “financially & emotionally secure” men who “don’t look like toads.”

In an email, sent from an account admittedly registered to Lee, someone reportedly replied, claiming to be a 39-year-old, “6ft 190lbs blond/blue,” “divorced” “lobbyist.”

After a few flirty back-and-forths, the woman told Gawker that Lee sent her a picture of himself, sans shirt.

Asked for comment, Lee’s spokesman provided a denial and claimed that the congressman’s email account had been hacked.

“The Congressman is happily married,” the spokesman told Gawker. “The only time he or his wife posted something online was to sell old furniture when they changed the apartment they keep in DC.”