DETROIT — A judge on Tuesday ordered the release of a key document, with damaging text messages between Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his then-chief of staff, which last fall prompted the mayor to approve a secret $8.4 million settlement in a police whistle-blower lawsuit. The legal brief, which leveraged the deal to keep Kilpatrick's text messages secret, contains extensive excerpts of messages between Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty over four months in 2002 and 2003, including never-before-published inflammatory and sexually explicit comments from the pair.

City Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. said that the new document and messages increased the possibility that council may act to remove the mayor from office. The council voted 7-1 in March to ask the mayor to resign.