Politics

Baseless or Real? FBI Is Asked to Look into Claims Against Atty. Gen. Bill Schuette

July 03, 2018, 2:01 PM

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Attorney General Bill Schuette (file photo)

What impact this will have on Attorney General Bill Schuette's campaign for governor is unclear, though it surely can't help the GOP front-runner.

The Ingham County prosecutor, a Democrat, has referred East Lansing attorney Mike Nichols’ concerns about possible criminal wrongdoing by Attorney General Bill Schuette to the FBI. The source for this report by Paul Egan of the Detroit Free Press is a text shared by Nichols.

Allegations involve improper use of state resources.

Nichols wrote Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon last Thursday, requesting a state grand jury or an other criminal investigation. 

On Tuesday, according to the Freep, Nichols circulated the text of an email he said he received Monday from Siemon that says:

After some research, it was determined that the most appropriate investigative body for this matter is the FBI and I have made that referral. "The Special Agent with whom I spoke indicated that while they do not contact all complainants, they likely will be in touch with you.

The Freep reports: 

In his letter to Siemon, a Democrat, asking for a criminal investigation, Nichols cited Schuette’s use of state employees to witness personal real estate transactions in his state-funded office and his hiring of Republican campaign operatives to taxpayer-funded civil service posts in the run-up to his current campaign for governor.

Schuette's spokeswoman, Andrea Bitely, tells the Freep the letter from Nichols is "nothing but another baseless attack on an Attorney General with a strong ethical record." On Tuesday, she added: "If I had a dime for every time a criminal defense attorney attacked a prosecutor, I’d have a lot of dimes."


Read more:  Detroit Free Press


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