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. Well talk about how he was this rising young star in the Republican Party. But first, hes just released a statement. Hes announced a resignation date. What did the statement say . Thats right, brooke. This is really coming as a shock to all republicans on capitol hill. Even republicans in speaker boehners office and other leadership offices were not made aware of this. In this Statement Released a few moments ago, he says hes 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 serve the
thank you, nick. happening this morning a u.s. air force veteran goes before a judge, he s accused of attempt to go join isis in syria. the experienced airplane mechanic was caught and turned back by turkish authorities in jarn. u.s. investigators found a letter on his laptop. let s get the latest from cnn justice correspondent pamela brown. reporter: according to court documents 47-year-old day rod nathan webster pugh from neptune, new jersey who was at one point a mechanic for american airlines trying to travel to syria to join sighs. also he apparently was in the air force for several years where he trained in the installation and maintenance of aircraft and weapons system. they say that s concerning because he could have brought his expertise to the terrorist group if he made it over to syria to join isis as authorities allege in this criminal complaint. according to that complaint, pugh left the air force in the 90s then worked for several private aviation companies and
questioning the negotiators as they head into the building. thanks so much. happening this morning a u.s. air force veteran goes before a judge accused of attempting to join isis in syria. day rod nathan webster pugh was caught and turned back by turkish authorities in january after he refused to let them examine his laptop and other deef iss, u.s. investigators later found a letter on his laptop in which he allegedly declared himself knew shad had a dean. pugh was an experienced aircraft mechanic. joseph clancey was grilled by a house committee about a series of embarrassing scandals at the agencies including the latest incident involving two agents accused of disrupting a late night bomb investigation at the white house while allegedly driving drunk. let s get more from senior cnn white house correspondent jim across is that. reporter: to accusations of
in january he allegedly flew from egypt to turning yie trying to cross into the border of syria. turkish officials apparently questioned him and according to court documents he told them that he was a pilot with u.s. special forces and he was in turkey to vacation however, turkish officials denied him interest after he refused them access to his electronics. the criminal complaint said it appeared pugh s electronics had had been tampered with, egypt then deported him. after a search of pugh s laptop the fbi says it did recover some evidence. 180 jihadist propaganda videos including an isis video that shows the execution of multiple prisoners. the agents found internet searches for things like borders controlled by the islamic state and searches for way to cross from turkey into syria. pugh s defense attorney tells cnn his client will plead not guilty when he faces a judge.