Nessel rebuffs ethics claims from Michigan House Oversight chair

Michigan House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay Township) accused Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel of multiple ethics violations regarding alleged conflicts of interest in two cases that her office investigated — and suggested that impeachment proceedings could be considered for Nessel. 

“I would say that it certainly could be on the table for certain. We’re not gonna rule such a thing out,” DeBoyer said in a press conference Tuesday in reference to impeachment. 

DeBoyer claimed that Nessel’s “lack of participation” in committee hearings demonstrated a lack of transparency. 

However, in an emailed response to Michigan Advance, Nessel’s office refuted that assertion.

“The Department of Attorney General offered to make the relevant Division Chiefs, each experienced prosecutors with direct knowledge of the investigations in question, available to appear before the Committee,” the Department of Attorney General statement read. “The Committee declined to speak with these prosecutors, preferring instead to present conclusions from their own staff, based on their selective review of documents drawn from the complete production provided by our office earlier this year.”

There are two issues in question — one involving alleged insurance fraud by Traci Kornak, a lawyer and former treasurer of the Michigan Democratic Party who also served on Nessel’s transition team, and another involving alleged campaign finance violations by Bipartisan Solutions, a nonprofit organization that raised money for Fair & Equal Michigan, a ballot initiative for which Nessel’s wife volunteered. 

DeBoyer said in a press conference, “Based on the facts that we have, based on the information that we can provide to all of you, there’s definitely, at minimum been a clear ethics violation by Attorney General Dana Nessel, in fact, twice on two cases that specifically involve individuals that she has a close personal relationship with.”

“Through our committee hearings and meticulous reporting, it is clear that the Attorney General did not act appropriately within her role with these two issues,” he added in a press release after an Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday on documents subpoenaed from the Attorney General’s office.

But Nessel’s office again denied any wrongdoing, stating that isolation walls — which prevent the Attorney General from influencing decisions in a case where there is a conflict of interest — were put up in both the Kornak investigation and in the Fair & Equal Michigan matter, which was a question of collecting online ballot petition signatures. In the Bipartisan Solutions investigation, which was a separate issue two years later, her office deemed it unnecessary to create an isolation wall, as neither Nessel nor her wife were associated with that group.

Staff attorneys, in the oversight hearing, presented a series of screenshots that appeared to suggest that Nessel may have broken the isolation walls. 

Michigan House Oversight Committee pursues subpoenas against multiple state departments

For example, email records from December 2022 show that Nessel was in contact with Kornak during the investigation into her alleged fraud. 

“The Attorney General never influenced these investigative or prosecutorial efforts over which isolation walls were in place and at no point did the Attorney General violate any standard of professional conduct prescribed for prosecutors or attorneys,” the statement from Nessel’s office said. “None of the selective communications exhibited during [Tuesday’s] committee meeting showed otherwise.”

Nessel’s office said “areas of confusion created by the committee” included conflating the closing of a file, which it termed “an administrative function of little consequence,” and the actual conclusion of an investigation. The statement also added that isolation walls do not prohibit individuals from communication, only that those communications must align with the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct. 

According to the documents presented to the Oversight Committee, the isolation walls excluded Nessel from accessing files and documents related to that particular matter and instructed staff not to discuss the matter in front of Nessel or take information from her on it. 

DeBoyer reiterated at the press conference that Nessel had been uncooperative with the committee. 

“They [the Attorney General’s office] followed up with an email that said, ‘Well, if it’s on the topics of Tracy Kornak matter, Bipartisan Solutions, Fair and Equal Michigan, she’s not going to come and testify because she has nothing to add to that discussion because she had nothing to do with those cases and had no involvement’,” he said. “Now I would argue, put a hard pause right there. That is an untrue statement. And that can be demonstrated by the evidence we presented today in committee.”

“What we saw from emails that were provided is that a conflict of interest was immediately established and should have been identified. It’s not an interpretation,” DeBoyer’s press release continued. 

“The Attorney General and the State agency under her leadership has been generously cooperative with the demands of the House Oversight Committee and refutes their contention that her conduct has been contemptuous,” Nessel’s office said. 

These allegations were announced one day before the House Judiciary Committee voted to pass three bills, including one authored by DeBoyer, that would limit the state Attorney General’s powers, especially in county-level circuit courts.