The results of a D.C. Council investigation into Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans became public on Tuesday. By the end of the evening, a majority of his colleagues were calling on him to resign.

The 97-page report into Evans’ conflicts of interest found that D.C.’s longest-serving legislator violated the council’s ethics rules at least 11 times in the past five years. All of these involve moments where Evans took official action as a councilmember on behalf of current or prospective clients of his private consulting business or law firm. He was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars “largely for merely being available,” the report from law firm O’Melveny & Myers reads, characterizing pay of that magnitude as “ethically suspect.” (While councilmembers are permitted to hold second jobs, they are required to disclose potential conflicts of interest and recuse themselves accordingly.)

Many of Evans’ colleagues did not mince words about the findings.

On Tuesday afternoon, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson called the report “damning.” Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen said that “the report lays out the definition of pay-to-play. It’s incredibly distressing, it’s incredibly disturbing.” And Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh said that “we’re entitled to be disgusted by what we read in the report,” pointing out particular moments when she found her “blood boiling” reading about Evans’ interference on behalf of private clients like Pepco, which resulted in stymying her climate legislation.

Evans contested these findings, and has long maintained that he never intended to violate the council’s codes. A 42-page response he sent out on Tuesday reiterated that perspective: “None of his lapses were intentional; none reflected any corrupt agreement with friends and clients; and none ever compromised Mr. Evans’ position, votes, support or work on long-standing issues for which he has been consistent for almost 30 years.”

But that response appears to have done little to persuade the majority of his colleagues. The entirety of D.C. Council aside from Evans sits on an ad hoc committee chaired by Cheh. That group will determine what discipline he will face in the next 90 days, and bring it before a full council. They can decide to reprimand (which they already did in March), censure, or expel Evans. Expulsion would require a supermajority of 11 votes.

Evans is also dealing with a recall effort and, should he run for reelection in 2020, he faces a crowded primary.

Even before O’Melveny & Myers began its investigation into Evans over the summer, At-large Councilmember David Grosso became the first sitting councilmember to call on the Ward 2 legislator to resign. He says the report’s findings vindicate the concerns he’s had for more than a year. “I think he can save us all a lot of headache at this point,” he told DCist on Tuesday, noting that the council has already invested significant time and money into investigating Evans. “This has now been dragging out for months and months and months and there is no end in sight.” When asked if he would vote for expulsion, Grosso says that “I think there’s plenty of evidence to do that.”

By Tuesday, he was no longer alone in calling for Evans’ resignation.

Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau told Washington Post reporter Fenit Nirappil that “we can no longer be confident that the business before us is untainted as long as he’s here.

Allen said in a statement that he believes the report’s findings “demonstrate a deliberate intent to personally profit from his elected office and represent a pattern of breaching public trust that cannot be repaired. This process has wasted too much time, money, and trust, and it is time he resign.”

At-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman also said on Twitter that “as it stands now I would vote in favor of expulsion and hope CM Evans would resign before we have to take such an action by the ad hoc committee.”

Then, At-large Councilmember Robert White chimed in on Twitter: “It is clear that he has irreparably harmed the public’s trust by using his office to benefit private clients and himself. In the best interest of the city, Mr. Evans must resign.”

These five councilmembers had previously advocated for harsher discipline, voting in a failed effort to remove Evans from all committees in July.

But the councilmember who backed Evans’ resignation next was more surprising: Ward 4’s Brandon Todd, who tweeted: “The findings within the report are troubling. It is clear that Mr. Evans should resign.”

Next up was Cheh in a reversal from earlier in the day, when she said that, as chair of the ad hoc committee, she didn’t want to influence her colleagues unduly. But the Ward 3 councilmember changed her mind by Tuesday night. “Six of my colleagues have called for Councilmember Evans’s resignation. I had withheld my view so as to not color their impressions of the law firm report in any way. However, it is now clear that will not be the case,” she tweeted. “I think resignation would be a wise and appropriate step for Mr. Evans to take, and I encourage him to do so.”

A day later, Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie joined those advocating for Evans to give up his seat, because he is “profounding disappointed” in him, and spoke to both him and Mendelson about “this very serious issue.” McDuffie said that told him that “in the best interests of the residents of the District, he should resign from the council.”

While Mendelson has not encouraged Evans to resign publicly, he said on Tuesday that he had spoken privately with Evans about the matter about two months ago, though declined to elaborate further.

“Mr. Evans has obliterated the public trust, and that would speak as well for the trust from his colleagues,” Mendelson said at a press conference.

But not all of the councilmembers are publicly sharing their opinions about what Evans should do. Indeed, Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White said on Twitter that he was doing the opposite: “I spoke to @JackEvansWard2 about what I think he should do based on what I read. I don’t see the need to call the media or tweet about what I would advise Jack to do, instead I just called Jack.”

By Wednesday afternoon, the Ward 8 councilmember had a change of heart and publicized his call for Evans to step down. “Today I finished reading @JackEvansWard2 response to the accusations about him,” he tweeted. “Jack and I spoke and we do not agree. His responses don’t make sense. What he should do is his choice, but I told him he should resign and focus on his family who solely depend on him.”

In a statement released on Thursday, Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent Gray expressed his “profound concerns” about what he read about Evans in the report, but said that “I will not be calling for Councilmember Evans’ resignation at this time. I firmly believe in due process and can appreciate better than most what it feels like to not be afforded that.”

Gray was the subject of an investigation into an alleged shadow campaign during his successful 2010 mayoral run. Multiple councilmembers called on him to resign. While some of his associated were indicted and pleaded guilty to crimes, Gray was never charged.

His statement goes on to say that his colleagues’ calls for Evans to resign have created “significant confusion,” adding that “I do not believe it is appropriate to be publicly weighing in with personal conclusions about an ongoing disciplinary process for which we need to examine the facts on a fair and impartial basis.”

The final councilmember to chime in, At-large Councilmember Anita Bonds, appeared on The Kojo Nnamdi Show on Friday. Like Gray, she dinged other members of the D.C. Council for quickly jumping into the fray, and wouldn’t say whether she would vote to expel him as part of the ad hoc committee.

But she did provide a revealing picture at the dynamics at play currently, and said that she believes Evans should step down.

“I have known Jack for many, many years,” said Bonds. “This issue is very difficult for us because we’re all concerned. We’re concerned about what does this say about our government? All of us would like Jack to resign. He knows that, and I’ve spoken with him. The issue is he’s not going to.”

Previously:
Jack Evans Violated Council’s Ethics Rules 11 Times, Investigation Finds
For The First Time Since This Ethics Brouhaha Started, Jack Evans Won’t Get To Vote On His Own Scandal
Jack Evans Resigns From Metro Board After Doozy Of A Report About His Ethics Violations
Council Votes To Strip Jack Evans Of Some Finance Committee Responsibilities In Wake Of Ethics Scandal
Notes On A Scandal: WTF Is Going On With Ward 2’s Jack Evans?

This story has been updated with comment from Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent Gray, and At-large Councilmember Anita Bonds, and additional comment from Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White.