Michigan House Oversight Committee backs off of issuing subpoenas over Benson SPLC connections

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic frontrunner in the Aug. 4 gubernatorial primary, and her connections to the Southern Poverty Law Center are being scrutinized by Republicans in hotly contested election year, and leading that charge is the state House Oversight Committee, which has for months indicated that it would investigate her ties to the organization.

On Wednesday, it indicated it will hold off for now.

The U.S. Department of Justice earlier this year announced criminal charges against the group. Members of the Southern Poverty Law Center said they would defend the group’s work vigorously in court, and called the allegations false. Part of the allegations claim that the group may have funneled money to extremist groups while trying to track them.

Benson served on the organization’s Board of Directors from 2014 to 2018, before she was elected to serve as Michigan’s secretary of state. The indictment alleges that SPLC engaged in criminal activity between 2014 and 2023.

The agenda for the state House Oversight Committee’s Wednesday meeting, which was held during the Legislature’s summer break ahead of next Tuesday’s primary election, noted that it would discuss issuing subpoenas against Benson to investigate her tenure on the group’s board before she became one of Michigan’s top executive branch officers.

But near the end of the committee — which also discussed the impact of Canadian wildfire smoke on residents’ health and business activity — House Oversight Committee Chair and state Rep. Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay) said that Benson had provided them with documentation the committee was asking for late Tuesday afternoon.

DeBoyer said that given the spirit of cooperation Benson showed by delivering the documents, an investigative subpoena was, at this time, unnecessary and that consideration of sending one was put on hold.

“If our review determines that the documents disclosed were incomplete, or if more issues are raised by those documents, we will come back to the committee for further consideration of the subpoena,” DeBoyer said. “It’s important to remind the members why this matter is important to the committee.”

The documents provided to DeBoyer’s committee include a letter acknowledging the committee’s request, which asked the Department of State for:

• All emails sent from Benson’s work email to any individual affiliated with the SPLC;
• All emails received to Benson’s work email from any individual affiliated with the SPLC; and
• Disclosure of any partnerships, collaborations, or cooperations the Michigan Department of State has had with the SPLC, including agreements to share information or promote voter registration efforts.

The Department of State provided the emails to Michigan Advance.

DeBoyer also requested any document in possession of department staff, including Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie, which discusses the allegations contained in the indictment of SPLC. If any of those documents existed but have been since deleted, the committee asked to be made aware of that, as well.

Aside from the letter acknowledging the request, the documents provided to DeBoyer include several emails. One chain involves coordinating a trip with the SPLC focusing on a Detroit-based civil rights icon, which was highlighted in an article from The 19th News. Others show the department’s responses to journalists and news organizations inquiring about the SPLC charges. 

Another set of emails include Freedom of Information Act requests made by former 2026 Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Cox, which he sued Benson for, before exiting the race.

Benson’s campaign spokesperson Alyssa Bradley told Michigan Advance that the secretary has spent her career working to advance the civil rights movement and help dismantle violent white supremacist and neo-Nazi extremist networks across the country. 

“While Michigan Republicans are staging another political stunt to distract from the real issues facing our state, Jocelyn remains focused on lowering costs, raising wages, and protecting the rights and freedoms of every Michigander,” Bradley said.

The committee’s focus on Benson stems from an April 21 grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama deciding to issue an indictment for the U.S. Department of Justice to charge the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks and reports on homegrown extremist groups in the United States, with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally-insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment through money laundering.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has pleaded not guilty to the charges and a trial is planned in October. SPLC has also asked the court overseeing the case to dismiss the charges, and has said that law enforcement has been aware for many years that it paid informants to report on the inner workings and overt actions of hate groups. The motion to dismiss also labeled the Department of Justice’s prosecution as an example of the administration of President Donald Trump going after his critics and organizations he doesn’t like.

Still, DeBoyer and other Republicans have argued Benson’s former service on the board raises questions about her judgment, noting that Benson told The Detroit News her role was mostly ceremonial, and it was incumbent upon the committee to probe whether that was true.

“According to the National Council of Nonprofits, as a board member, Jocelyn Benson had a fiduciary responsibility to ensure the Southern Poverty Law Center was operating ethically and legally. Considering the recent federal indictments, the committee finds a role in relationship with a nonprofit to be a matter of serious concern,” DeBoyer said.