Committee vote · prevailed · 15–0–2

Recorded committee decision

that the House Oversight Committee authorize the Chair of the committee to execute a subpoena to the Office of the Michigan Attorney General. 1. The information being sought is necessary to the work of the Committee because: The matter of this criminal referral and any resulting investigation presents issues regarding conflicts of interest between the Michigan Department of Attorney General and the suspect of the criminal investigation. The House has an interest in obtaining documents regarding the investigation into this criminal referral from the Department of State, as the House examines and debates whether to enact legislation addressing how conflicts of interest such as this should be regulated by statutory law. Furthermore, the House has the ability to impeach civil officers of the State of Michigan, where corrupt conduct in office occurs. In order to faithfully exercise its responsibilities in this regard, the House is entitled to investigate the Department of Attorney General’s decisions regarding whether to issue criminal charges in this matter, or whether to create a conflict wall, given the close relationship between Attorney General Dana Nessell and the subject of the criminal referral. 2. Previous efforts made to obtain the information being sought, without the issuance of a subpoena, are as follows: The Chair of the Committee previously requested from the Department of State and the Department of Attorney General various documents regarding criminal referrals sent by the Department of State to the Department of Attorney General for investigation. Although the Department of State produced only limited documentation regarding those referrals, the Chair is in possession of the criminal referral in question. The committee did not otherwise request that the Department of Attorney General voluntarily produce the documents currently being sought, before issuance of a subpoena. Given the contents of the documents already in the committee’s possession, regarding Attorney General Dana Nessell’s personal involvement with the criminal suspect and with this case, it was determined that the committee should proceed directly to the request for a subpoena. 3. The party to be subpoenaed is the Michigan Department of Attorney General. 4. A general description of the documents or other things to be produced can be found on the last page of the subpoena document, which is before each member of the committee. 5. At this time, only a subpoena for the production of records is sought.

Meeting date

Not recorded

Result

prevailed

Yeas

15

Nays

0

Validation

consistent

Related meeting

meeting-187

A committee motion is a proceeding-level decision. A named choice supports that individual vote only and does not establish continuous attendance.