Report: N.Y. Rep. Grimm to resign in wake of tax plea

Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., plans to resign from the House in the wake of his guilty plea in a tax evasion case, the New York Daily Newsreported late Monday, citing an unnamed source.

Grimm was charged in April with hiding more than $1 million in revenue from a restaurant he owned before he ran for Congress; he maintained his innocence and was re-elected in November.

But he pleaded guilty last week to one count of tax evasion. He said through his lawyer at the time that he did not intend to resign. But the Daily News reported that after a conversation with Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Grimm has decided to step down.

Boehner has a record of being forceful with GOP members who have admitted to wrongdoing, making it very clear that he does not want members' ethical problems to tarnish the larger GOP caucus.

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel declined to comment on the Daily News report.

A former FBI agent and Marine, Grimm was first elected in 2010 to the seat that covers part of Brooklyn and all of Staten Island.

In announcing the charges earlier this year, U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, who has since been nominated to succeed Attorney General Eric Holder, said Grimm "made the choice to go from upholding the law to breaking it."

Grimm has been investigated for an unrelated campaign finance matter, but was perhaps best known for threatening a reporter on-camera in January when the reporter asked about the status of that case. Grimm, who was being interviewed about President Obama's State of the Union Address, accused the reporter of trying to ambush him with questions about the campaign scandal and said "Let me be clear to you, you ever do that to me again I'll throw you off this f------ balcony." After the video of the confrontation went public, Grimm apologized.