Gretchen Whitmer
Here's an issue likely to surface as the governor's race in Michigan heats up.
Michigan State University Police Chief Jim Dunlap tells Jonathan Oosting of The Detroit News that then-acting Ingham County Prosecutor Gretchen Whitmer and a top assistant wanted to charge MSU and Olympic physician Larry Nassar in a child pornography case that she thought would be relatively easy to convict on, but said sex assault allegations could be much more difficult.
"She told us in a meeting that her decision was to move forward on the child sexually abusive material and not the criminal sexual assaults,” said Dunlap. “The big issue is we wanted to move forward on the (assault) cases and not settle for the (pornography) case."
Whitmer, who is running for governor as a Democrat, called "patently false" the accusation that her office hesitated to prosecute Nassar on the sexual misconduct allegations.
Oosting reports:
Whitmer and another top county attorney say Dunlap never brought them police reports that would have allowed her office to decide whether to prosecute the assault cases. They claim MSU police took the cases to Schuette because initial allegations originated in multiple counties — Ingham and Eaton — making his state-level office best suited to lead the prosecution, a point Schuette himself noted when he agreed to review them.
"That was the only issue," Whitmer said. “My office was ready to move forward on any and all alleged crimes. The MSU police department ultimately took the charges to the Attorney General’s and U.S. Attorney’s offices because of jurisdiction."
