Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) announced on Tuesday that he has accepted the resignation of Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson (R), after he "admitted to conduct in the workplace that did not live up to our high expectations."
Clarkson admitted to sending inappropriate text messages to the personal phone of a junior state employee, who was not in his chain of command but did interact with him. ProPublica and the Anchorage Daily News report that Clarkson sent more than 550 text messages to the unnamed woman, inviting her to his home at least 18 times and regularly using the kiss emoji. On March 26, he allegedly told the woman, "Haven't seen you in awhile, so you owe me a number of hugs." A few days later, on April 4, the woman reportedly told Clarkson he needed to respect her boundaries and "please remember this is my personal phone."
In his resignation letter, obtained by NBC News, Clarkson apologized for his "errors in judgment" and said when the woman "eventually expressed her discomfort to me, I immediately respected her wishes and ceased communicating with her by text." He called the messages "'G' rated" and said there is "nothing remotely salacious about the texts. In our texts we exchanged innocent mutual endearments between us in words and emojis."
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