Diehl said Thursday that he is resigning both from his House speaker’s position and from his elected job as a Republican representative from suburban St. Louis.
Diehl acknowledged “making a serious error in judgment by sending the text messages.”
His resignation comes a day after The Kansas City Star released a story accompanied by screenshots of what the newspaper said were electronic messages between Diehl and the intern. Some of the messages were sexually suggestive.
The 49-year-old Diehl had been chosen as speaker in January and was first elected to the House in 2008. He is married and has three children.