Unless you live in Michigan and keep abreast of the goings-on there it's simply impossible to comprehend the depth of corruption among state Republicans. It's sort of mind-boggling how so many got away with so much for so long, seemingly without any oversight and with complete immunity. At least until they didn't. This one wouldn't even have been discovered unless the Attorney General began looking at some extraordinary expense claims by former state House Speaker Lee Chatfield by a non-profit organization tied to Chatfield, the Peninsula Fund. From there it eventually led to the Minards and their side business that also made millions.
Attorney Robert Harrison, who's representing Rob Minard, said the charging warrant against his client read "like a statement of what every campaign, local, state or federal, runs like." Maybe. If your state is Michigan and Republicans are in power.
Source: Detroit News
Lansing — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel unveiled Thursday felony charges of embezzlement against two top staffers of former state House Speaker Lee Chatfield, shining a bright light on the flow of secret dollars to policymakers within state government.
During a press conference in Lansing, Nessel said Rob and Anne Minard financially exploited and defrauded political fundraising accounts through a pattern of improper reimbursements, double billings and falsified records. The attorney general described the Minards as "Lansing power brokers" who took advantage of the state's weak transparency laws to enrich themselves, wrongfully obtaining $525,000.
"These were concrete abuses in black and white," Nessel said. "So much so, that in some instances, it's obvious that they were counting on the fact that no one would ever review it."
Chatfield held the top position in the Michigan House in 2019 and 2020. Rob Minard was Chatfield's chief of staff. Rob Minard's wife, Anne Minard, was his director of external affairs. In addition to their taxpayer-funded jobs in the House, they had a political consulting firm, Victor Strategies, which thrived during Chatfield's term in power and helped oversee a fundraising operation that brought in millions of dollars and featured multiple nonprofit organizations.
Nessel's investigators have been probing Chatfield's prodigious fundraising for nearly two years. The Levering Republican remains under investigation, Nessel said.
Beyond the prodigious fundraising and where that money ultimately ended up, there was also the matter that started the investigation into Chatfield in the first place, his sister-in-law accusing him of sexually abusing her from the time she was just 15. As when turning over rocks, the more they looked the more they found.
Dana Nessel throws the hammer down.
Funny, they don't look like the type of people who would steal and embezzle, do they?
