I was thinking since my last reply, something was missing and figured it out : what detonated this crisis was the intention to hide the identity of his father, because whatever the reason of his signature in the letter the impact could be mitigated by an early public clarification, announce it in their terms and not reacting when the new went out.
By hiding it made him look like corrupt, but if he decides the opposite i's sure we would be seen as an honest public server and the repercussions to his father wouldn't be so hard.
Yes, denial is always the problem and more of us know that now..