Former Democratic Party Treasurer Charged With Embezzling From Vulnerable Adult

Traci Kornak

Attorney Traci Kornak, former treasurer for the Michigan Democratic Party and a friend of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, faces charges of allegedly embezzling thousands of dollars from a vulnerable adult, the Detroit News reports.

Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker, a Republican, announced that he filed three felony charges against Kornak: two embezzlement-related counts and one count of false pretenses. She is set to be arraigned Feb. 17 in 63rd District Court in Grand Rapids.

The Michigan Democratic Party listed Kornak as its treasurer  from 2019 until May 2025.

Kornak worked on Nessel’s transition team in 2018, when Nessel was elected attorney general.

Charlie LeDuff, in a column in The Detroit News in 2022, reported that a Grand Rapids nursing home was accusing Kornak of “inappropriate and unauthorized” invoicing for services for an elderly, brain-damaged woman over whom she holds power of attorney. The Attorney Genera's Office subsequently launched an investigation. 

In 2023, he wrote:

Scott Teter, the director of the AG’s Financial Crimes Division, was so concerned about the obvious conflict of interest he drafted a memo last September informing staff that he was constructing an ethical firewall to distance Nessel from the investigation.

“Because the suspect in this matter assisted with Attorney General Nessel’s transition into office, I believe it would create the appearance of impropriety for AG Nessel to access information about this investigation,” wrote Teter.

LeDuff reported that emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act showed Nessel’s chief investigator disregarded the ethics firewall and sent Nessel four reports regarding the Kornak investigation.

Charlie LeDuff

LeDuff reported on Dec. 6, Nessel forwarded those reports to Fadwa Hammoud, her solicitor general, and said that Kornak was awaiting a judicial appointment in Kent County and “wants to be able to assert that the claims made by [redacted] were never substantiated by our investigation and the case is closed. Please advise what our process should be. There is some urgency to the matter in that she needs to supply this information by the week’s end.”

On Oct. 18, 2023, an angry Nessel publicly responded with a lengthy statement contesting LeDuff's reporting and insisting she did not violate the firewall.

"There was no violation of an internal Isolation Wall Notice," she wrote. "The Isolation Wall was established to prevent the perception of influence from the Attorney General, who had a prior professional engagement with the investigatory subject, into the investigation and subsequent charging decision and potential prosecution.

"At the time of the reported communications, the investigation had concluded and the decision not to pursue criminal charges had been completed, without influence from or consult with Attorney General Nessel. The investigation subject did not receive the reports from the Attorney General, but via a public records request pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, the same mechanism used by the opinion author at the Detroit News. The Attorney General’s review of the reports at that time was not in conflict with the isolation wall in letter nor intent."

Detroit News Editor Gary Miles responded to Nessel's comments and defended LeDuff in a column: 

"This unusually legalistic, public and personal approach to pointing out alleged mistakes was curious, but did not alter our process of immediately reviewing the piece for possible errors. We have found none. We did find at least two false or misleading statements in the AG office's letter, which I have pointed out in a reply that I will send today. The balance of the AG counsel's letter espouses his opinion, stated as fact, that Nessel's intercession did not violate the firewall nor did it pressure her staff to close the investigation she was inquiring about with 'urgency.'"

A short time later, LeDuff was fired by the Detroit News after he made a coded reference on social media to the word "cunt" aimed at  Nessel. Specifically, he wrote, "See you next Tuesday,” a backronym for the word “cunt.” It’s often written, “C U Next Tuesday

In an interview on the podcast ML Soul of Detroit, LeDuff, who was writing a weekly column, said he apologized to Editor and Publisher Gary Miles and Editorial Page Editor Nolan Finley "for causing them embarrassment and stress."

But he added: "I'll just say this, if I wanted to use the word I'll use it and I reserve the right to use it."