On June 25, La Nación, a Buenos Aires newspaper, identified the Argentine woman as María Belén Chapur, a 43-year-old divorced mother of two with a university degree in international relationswho lives in the city of Buenos Aires and works as a commodity broker .[44] The State earlier had published details of e-mails between Sanford and a woman only identified as "Maria."[45] Sanford met Chapur at a dance in Uruguay in 2001 and admitted there was a more intimate relationship with her starting in 2008.[46]

Sanford's wife had become aware of her husband's infidelities around five months before the scandal broke, and the two had sought marriage counseling.[42] She said that she had requested a trial separation about two weeks before his disappearance.[47]
Sanford told reporters that months before his affair became public he had sought counsel at a controversial religious organization called The Family, of which he became a member when he was a Representative in Washington, D.C. from 1995 to 2001.[48]

Fallout from scandal
His wife, Jenny Sanford, after telling Vogue magazine that her husband was having a “midlife crisis”, moved out of the South Carolina Governor's Mansion, with the couple’s four sons, returning to the family home on Sullivan's Island.[49][50]

On December 11, 2009, Jenny Sanford announced that she was filing for divorce, calling it a "sad and painful process."[51] On February 26, 2010, a Charleston County, South Carolina Family Court Judge approved her request.[52] Following the divorce, Jenny Sanford retained ownership of the Sullivan's Island home.

Resignation as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association
Sanford resigned as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association,[53][54] and he was swiftly succeeded by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.[55] In a June 29 email to members of his political action committee, Sanford said he had no intention of resigning as governor.[56]

Reimbursement for his private use of public funds
After his affair was revealed in June 2009, Sanford first claimed, "There's been a lot of speculation and innuendo on whether or not public moneys were used to advance my admitted unfaithfulness. To be very clear: no public money was ever used in connection with this."[57] After a reporter used the Freedom of Information Act to seek records of what public funds were used to pay for Sanford's trip to Argentina,[58] Sanford eventually chose to reimburse taxpayers for expenses he had incurred one year earlier with his mistress in Argentina.[59] He said, "I made a mistake while I was there in meeting with the woman who I was unfaithful to my wife with. That has raised some very legitimate concerns and questions, and as such I am going to reimburse the state for the full cost of the Argentina leg of this trip.” On August 9, 2009, the AP reported that Sanford may have violated state law by other abusive use of state planes, including to fly to get a haircut.[60]

Impeachment proceedings
On August 25, state representatives Nathan Ballentine and Gary Simrill met with Sanford and warned him that the state legislature would impeach him if he did not resign. Ballentine, an ally of Sanford's, said afterward, "I told him the writing is on the wall. ...he could put an end to it all, but if he doesn't, members of the House will take things into their hands." Sanford still declined to resign.[61] On August 28, The Washington Times reported that Republican lawmakers in South Carolina were "laying plans" for a special legislative session on whether to impeach Sanford. Two bills of impeachment were being prepared, with bipartisan support in the state legislature.[62]

On October 23, 2009, two impeachment resolutions were introduced, but were blocked by Democrats in the South Carolina legislature.[63] A month later, the resolution was successfully introduced and it was announced that an ad hoc committee would begin drafting articles of impeachment starting on November 24.[64] Meanwhile, the Ethics Commission formally charged Sanford with 37 violations.[65] making his removal or resignation all that more likely.

On December 3, during its third public hearing on the matter, the ad hoc committee unanimously voted to remove the vast majority of charges from the investigation, stating that they didn't warrant "overturning an election." On December 9, the committee voted 6–1 against impeachment, stating that the legislature had better things to do. However, the committee voted unanimously to censure the governor.[66] On the 16th the full House Judiciary Committee voted 15–6 to formally end the process.

Censure
On December 15, 2009, the House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to censure Sanford. The full South Carolina House of Representatives voted 102–11 on the resolution in January 2010.

Role in 2008 presidential election
In 2006, before the midterm elections, some commentators discussed the possibility of Sanford running for president.[citation needed] He said that he would not run, and claimed that his re-election bid would be his last election, win or lose. After Super Tuesday in 2008, Sanford received some mention as a potential running mate for the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, John McCain.

Sanford publicly aligned himself with McCain in a March 15, 2008, piece in the Wall Street Journal. Likening the presidential race to a football game at halftime, Sanford noted that he "sat out the first half, not endorsing a candidate...But I'm now stepping onto the field and going to work to help John McCain. It's important that conservatives do the same."[73]

On January 11, 2008, shortly before the South Carolina presidential primaries (R Jan 19, D Jan 26), Sanford published a guest column in the Columbia newspaper The State.[74] In the article, "Obama's Symbolism Here", Sanford wrote, "I won't be voting for Barack Obama for president," but noted the "historical burden" borne by South Carolinians on the topic of race. He advised voters in South Carolina to take note of the symbolism of Obama's early success, with the knowledge that South Carolina was a segregated state less than fifty years earlier, and discouraged voting either for or against Obama on the basis of his race.

In a January 18, 2008 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer,[75] Sanford discussed his Obama article. Wolf Blitzer asked, "Give us your mind-set. Why did you think it was so important to write this piece right now at this critical moment?" Sanford responded, "Well, it plays into a larger conversation that we're having as a family of South Carolinians on, in fact, the [constitutional] structure of our government." Also, Wolf Blitzer showed Sanford clips of recent comments made by John McCain and Mike Huckabee about the Confederate battle flag and asked Sanford, "All right, two different positions, obviously. Who's right in this?" Sanford responded, "Well, it depends who you talk to." Sanford elaborated that "if you were to talk to the vast majority of South Carolinians, they would say that we do not need to be debating where the Confederate flag is or is not."

Sanford attracted derision in the liberal blogosphere and among pundits and analysts on the left for a gaffe during an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on July 13, 2008, when he had difficulty answering a question about differences between Senator McCain and incumbent President George W. Bush on economic policy.[76] "I'm drawing a blank, and I hate when I do that, especially on television," joked Sanford.[77]

Possible 2012 candidacy
As early as January 2008, there had been anticipation that Sanford would run for President in 2012, and online support groups had sprung up on virtual social networks like Facebook in support of a Sanford ticket.[78]

Further boosting Sanford's profile in advance of a potential candidacy, which the governor has neither ruled out nor expressly hinted at,[80] he was elected as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association in November 2008[81] and was cited by Michael S. Steele, the Chairman of the Republican Party as one of four "rising stars" in the GOP (alongside Governors Bobby Jindal ofLouisiana, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Sarah Palin of Alaska) in February 2009.[82] Sanford also received early support for a presidential run from the Republican Liberty Caucus.[83]

On February 22, 2009, Sanford declined to rule out a possible presidential bid in 2012, though he professed to have no current plans to run for national office.[84]

Washington Post blogger Chris Cillizza says that revelations of an extramarital affair in June 2009 ended Sanford's chances of being a serious candidate in 2012.

On January 4, 2010, Sanford admitted that, "If there's anything that's abundantly clear, it's that I ain't running for president." In the same Republican meeting, he also indicated that he would enter the private sector after his last 11 months as governor.