Committee vote · prevailed · 14–1–1

Recorded committee decision

that the House Oversight Committee authorize the Chair of the committee to execute a subpoena to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and the Department of the Attorney General. The subpoenas would require Attorney General Nessel to produce unredacted documents that were the subject of two previous subpoenas from this Committee to the Department of Attorney General. In accordance with the Oversight Committee’s Special Rules, I state the following in support of the motion: 1. The information being sought is necessary to the work of the Committee because: The two previous subpoenas from this Committee to the Department of Attorney General involved criminal investigations that presented issues regarding conflicts of interest between the Department of Attorney General and the suspects of the criminal referral and criminal investigation. The Michigan House of Representatives has an interest in obtaining documents regarding these closed investigations, 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 decision to decline issuing criminal charges in these matters, which involved either a family member of the Attorney General, or a high-ranking officer of a major political party of this state. 2. Previous efforts made to obtain the information being sought are as follows: On July 22, 2025, this Committee voted 15-0 to authorize a document subpoena to the Department of Attorney General for documents regarding a criminal referral from the Michigan Department of State for an alleged violation of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act by an organization called Bipartisan Solutions, and any investigation into potential criminal activity regarding that referral. Also, on July 22, 2025, this Committee voted 17-0 to authorize a document subpoena to the Department of Attorney General for documents regarding an investigation into potential criminal activity by an individual named Traci Kornak. These two subpoenas required the production of documents by August 5, 2025. The Department of Attorney General provided documents to the House Oversight Committee on or about September 11, 2025. However, as you have seen from today’s presentation, those documents were redacted. Despite the communications to my office from the Attorney General’s staff claiming that the Attorney General had no involvement in these two cases, we saw today emails sent by Dana Nessel personally, including one email that is completely redacted. 3. The parties to be subpoenaed are and the Department of Attorney General and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. 4. The subpoenas will direct that the Attorney General Nessel produce the documents listed on the two subpoenas previously sent by this Committee to the Department of Attorney General, and to do so without redaction.

Meeting date

Not recorded

Result

prevailed

Yeas

14

Nays

1

Validation

consistent

Related meeting

meeting-308

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