Lansing — Michigan House Republicans said they might try to impeach the state’s Democratic attorney general, Dana Nessel, in her eighth and final year in office, accusing her of inappropriately wading into two investigations involving her allies.
But Nessel’s supporters countered that the GOP lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee are engaging in political theater and are misinterpreting or inaccurately portraying emails they obtained through subpoenas.
At the center of the claims are internal firewalls that were set up within Nessel’s office to prevent conflicts of interest in ongoing investigations. An Attorney General’s office probe that was supposed to be walled off from Nessel focused on Traci Kornak, a lawyer who served in 2018 on Nessel’s attorney general transition team. The other probe that Republicans have examined focused on Bipartisan Solutions, a nonprofit organization that contributed $782,000 to Fair and Equal Michigan, a ballot proposal committee co-chaired by Nessel’s wife, Alanna Maguire.
House Republicans obtained emails that showed Kornak had contacted Nessel and asked to receive documents related to the investigation into her. The emails also suggested that Nessel had spoken with Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a fellow Democrat, about a campaign finance investigation into Bipartisan Solutions.
“There’s definitely, at minimum, a clear ethics violation by Attorney General Dana Nessel,” House Oversight Chairman Jay DeBoyer, R-Clay Township, declared Tuesday.
While there was a conflict wall in place for matters involving Fair and Equal Michigan, there was not one for Bipartisan Solutions, Nessel spokeswoman Kim Bush said. The Attorney General’s Office also provided The Detroit News with emails that showed an investigation into Kornak’s work as a conservator for an elderly woman in west Michigan had been closed on Sept. 26, 2022, two months before Nessel messaged about being contacted by Kornak.
“Attorney General Nessel wielded no influence over the Kornak investigation, and none of the committee’s testimony or exhibits demonstrated that she had,” Bush said.
The scrutiny of Nessel, the state’s top law enforcement official and a frequent critic of Republican President Donald Trump, has been led by the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee.
On Tuesday, the panel met for about three hours. Members heard a report on the documents they received from the Attorney General’s Office, approved a subpoena for additional information on the Kornak investigation and voted to recommend that the full House hold Nessel in contempt of the Legislature for allegedly not cooperating with past demands.
The new subpoena referenced the House’s “ability to impeach civil officers of the state of Michigan.”
“There’s only one place that possesses impeachment to start, and that’s the House of Representatives,” DeBoyer said after the hearing. “So I would say that it certainly would be on the table.”
Across the aisle, state Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou, D-East Lansing, said Republicans, who took control of the House in January, have been exercising their oversight powers for political purposes throughout the year. Last week’s actions toward Nessel were merely the latest example, she said.
“What’s going on is political theater and a kangaroo court,” Tsernoglou said.
“Do we need oversight? Absolutely,” she added. “Should we hold departments and department heads accountable? Yes, we should. I just don’t think that’s what’s happening in that committee.”
A potential appointment
For years, Republicans have questioned Nessel’s handling of the 2022 investigation into Kornak, a former Michigan Democratic Party treasurer. They’ve alleged that Kornak abused her power as a conservator who was supposed to help an elderly woman oversee her finances. But Kornak hasn’t been charged with such a crime.
In July, seven months after winning a majority in the House, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena the records from Nessel’s office about its probe into Kornak.
The documents showed Nessel’s office opened an investigation into Kornak after reporting in The Detroit News on July 13, 2022, said a Grand Rapids nursing home was accusing Kornak of “inappropriate and unauthorized” invoicing.
“Notwithstanding … we’ve not received a complaint, the AG wants to know if this billing issue is something we would investigate,” Christina Grossi, former chief deputy attorney general, wrote in a July 13, 2022, email to other Attorney General staffers.
A conflict wall to exclude Nessel from discussing or accessing the Kornak case was set up on Sept. 6, 2022, according to emails obtained by the House Oversight Committee.
By Sept. 26, 2022, Lorri Bates, a supervisory special agent, requested that the probe into Kornak be closed.
Bush said the office was examining potential insurance fraud. The insurance company and the assisted living home involved in the situation didn’t want to pursue a case, Bush said.
“For an investigation regarding these alleged misdeeds, a complainant is required to participate in order to establish a crime occurred,” Bush said. “Having no viable path to further investigate the reported complaint, the file was closed.”
Despite it coming after the investigation’s closure, House Republicans have highlighted a Dec. 6, 2022, email in which Nessel discussed being contacted by Kornak.
The allegations against her “are apparently holding up a potential judicial appointment for her in Kent County,” Nessel wrote in the Dec. 6, 2022, message to two Attorney General employees. “She has requested the documents from our investigation.”
Nessel added, “Please advise what our process should be.”
During the three-hour Tuesday committee hearing, the House Oversight Committee heard a report on and asked questions about the Kornak matter for about two hours.
“This stinks,” DeBoyer said of the attorney general’s handling of the case.
Also, House Republicans said the Kent County Sheriff’s Office had separately investigated Kornak and recommended charges be brought by the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office, including embezzlement from a vulnerable adult.
Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said the case was still under investigation as of Friday.
In an email, Kornak said she wasn’t available to respond due to other obligations.
Bipartisan Solutions
The Secretary of State’s office determined in November 2022 that a nonprofit group named Bipartisan Solutions might have violated campaign finance requirements by flowing about $782,000 to Fair and Equal Michigan, a petition campaign that sought to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Because of the coordination involved in your organization’s contributions to Fair and Equal Michigan and Bipartisan Solutions’ failure to file campaign statements, the department concludes there may be reason to believe that a potential violation of the act has occurred,” wrote Adam Fracassi of the Bureau of Elections in a letter to Bipartisan Solutions.
Then, the Secretary of State’s office referred the matter to Nessel’s office in April 2023.
Spurred by a separate matter, three years earlier, Nessel’s office had already set up an internal conflict wall regarding Fair and Equal Michigan, for which Nessel’s wife had briefly served as a co-chair.
In August 2023, the Attorney General’s Office asked the Secretary of State’s Office to reopen its inquiry into Bipartisan Solutions because the communications from the Secretary of State’s Office to Bipartisan Solutions had been sent to an incorrect address, according to emails obtained by House Republicans.
Michael Brady, chief legal director for the Secretary of State, responded by saying the communications were sent to the address the group had on file, and his office couldn’t reopen the investigation.
On Feb. 22, 2024, Danielle Hagaman-Clark, the Attorney General’s chief bureau chief, wrote to Brady, “I was informed the AG reached out directly to the Secretary and the Secretary agreed to take this matter back for further review.”
However, Benson spokeswoman Angela Benander said Friday that the Secretary of State’s Office never reopened the matter or took it back.
But House Republicans said the emails showed Nessel had violated the conflict wall regarding Fair and Equal Michigan.
“It’s quite brazen that the attorney general would contact the secretary of state and ask for these charges to be taken back,” Rep. Angela Rigas, R-Caledonia, said at one point Tuesday.
Nessel’s office said the conflict wall was set up for matters regarding Fair and Equal Michigan specifically, not for Bipartisan Solutions, a separate organization.
“The determination to refer the Bipartisan Solutions matter back to the Michigan Department of State was predicated on Michigan Department of Attorney General prosecutors’ determination that the Department of State had not satisfied statutorily prescribed processes for resolving complaints of conduct contrary to the Michigan Campaign Finance Act,” Bush said.
Nessel’s office didn’t participate in Tuesday’s three-hour hearing. At the end of it, Rep. Josh Schriver, R-Oxford, said he believes Nessel’s actions amounted to impeachable conduct.
The committee then approved a motion by Rep. Jason Woolford, R-Howell, to recommend the House symbolically hold Nessel in contempt of the Legislature. The House similarly voted to hold Benson, the Democratic secretary of state, in contempt in May.
The evidence showed the “unaccountable deep state operating behind the scenes,” Woolford said.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
