Craig files to withdraw plea, blames stress from paper's investigation

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, mistakenly pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct because he was under stress from a newspaper investigation into claims that he is gay, according to court papers filed Monday.

Craig, who has strongly denied that he is gay, filed papers Monday to withdraw his guilty plea after his June arrest at a restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

According to papers filed in Hennepin County, Minnesota, District Court, Craig was in a "state of intense anxiety" following his arrest and "felt compelled to grasp the lifeline offered to him by the police officer." The senator pleaded guilty in hopes the matter would not be made public, the court documents said.

The arrest, combined with Craig's interview with the Idaho Statesman, sparked the lawmaker to panic that the newspaper would use the restroom incident to bolster its allegations, the court papers said.

Patrick Hogan of the Metropolitan Airports Commission said the prosecutor will oppose Craig's motion, according to The Associated Press. The commission runs the airport and handled the prosecution of the case.

"We do feel we have a strong case, and he's already made his plea, and it's been accepted by the court," Hogan told the AP. "From our standpoint, this is already a done deal. Mr. Craig was arrested and signed a guilty plea, and from our standpoint, this case is already over."

Earlier Monday, Craig's attorney, Billy Martin, told CNN that the senator "had just gone under a tremendous interview with the Idaho Statesman where he was under investigation for being gay. They were walking around Washington and other cities with photographs at gay bars that were embarrassing him."

Martin said Craig pleaded guilty after suffering "pressure" and "stress" from the Statesman interview and was panicked "from what this could do."

Craig was not "thinking clearly, and he waived his constitutional rights, and we're asking that to be reversed," Martin said. Watch Martin discuss why Craig is trying to withdraw his guilty plea »

Martin said that the lawmaker's plea "was not knowing and intelligent and therefore was in violation of his constitutional rights" when he was arrested.

"We think the law is on the senator's side, and we hope that the ruling will be reversed," Martin said.

Martin told CNN that Craig wishes he had sought legal counsel between his June 11 arrest and his August 8 guilty plea.

Craig, 62, announced that he would resign on September 30, but he told Senate leaders last week that he would remain in office if he was able to get the plea overturned.

In a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, 67 percent of those surveyed said Craig should resign. The poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, interviewed 1,017 adult Americans by phone on Friday through Sunday.

The senator's attorneys plan to argue that the police officer who arrested Craig suggested that pleading guilty was "an easy way out" because he claimed he would not alert the media, said a source who asked for anonymity because the pleadings had not been filed at the time. When asked if the police officer's behavior was "coercive," the source said no. But he added that in his view, Craig did not make a "knowing and intelligent plea."

Police said Craig's arrest was the result of an investigation into reports of "lewd conduct" in the airport bathroom. In an audiotaped police interview, Craig repeatedly proclaimed that he didn't do anything wrong.

In a CNN interview Sunday, one of Craig's Senate colleagues compared the guilty plea to a motorist paying an undeserved parking ticket. Sen. Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Craig should stay in the Senate and fight to overturn his conviction.

"He thought that this matter would not be publicly disclosed, and that was very foolish," Specter said. "Now look here, you have 27 years in the Congress, you have his reputation, you have his whole life on the line. I think he's entitled to his day in court. Maybe he will be convicted, but I doubt it."

Specter said Minnesota law allows a defendant to withdraw a guilty plea "if there is manifest injustice, and that is defined that a plea can be withdrawn if it was not intelligently made," Specter said. "And what Sen. Craig did was by no means intelligent." E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

All About Larry Craig