If incompetence were a crime, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel would be serving a life sentence.
Even renowned mob lawyer Bruce Cutler thinks so.
Cutler was the attorney for John Gotti, the dapper don of the Gambino mafia family. Cutler got Gotti acquitted three different times, before the authorities banned him from representing Gotti a fourth time. So Cutler knows something about the grime underneath the judicial robes.
I called Cutler in New York to get his take on the shenanigans going on in Nessel’s office. I explained how she screwed up the Flint prosecution. Then Larry Nassar. Then the nursing homes. Then her interference with the criminal investigation into her friend and political ally.
“Looks like you need a special prosecutor up there,” Cutler told me. “But you’re probably not gonna get one. Politics. Right?”
The legal consigliere made an excellent point. Who in fact does investigate the attorney general? Because the latest scandal involving Nessel, her wife, and yet another political ally should cost Nessel not only her job but her law license, if anyone in a position of power had the fortitude to stand up to her.
Consider the latest case of lawfare being waged by the Michigan attorney general.
A group called Unlock Michigan was pushing a ballot initiative back in 2020. The initiative asked voters to repeal a 1945 emergency powers law that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used to seize control of Michigan during the Covid-19 pandemic. The state Supreme Court eventually ruled that the law and Whitmer’s lockdown orders were unconstitutional.
That didn’t stop Nessel. Unlock Michigan was referred to her desk by the secretary of state for campaign finance violations. Unlock was accused of coordinating with a charity to launder dark money in order to conceal the identity of donors.
Nessel last February announced charges against two people affiliated with Unlock Michigan. Those charges include multiyear felonies, with the potential for millions of dollars in fines.
What Nessel did not tell the assembled press corps that day was that 10 months earlier, she received another near-exact criminal referral from the secretary of state. That referral involved a 2020 gay rights ballot initiative called Fair and Equal Michigan, which was co-chaired by her wife, Alanna Maguire.
Nothing seems to have happened. The criminal referral appears to have been buried. Despite the obvious conflict of interest, Nessel has not recused herself as is required under the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers.
Nessel has not asked the Michigan Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council, a state agency, to appoint a special prosecutor to consider charges against the charity that was funneling money into Fair and Equal, according to a spokesman.
When you drill down into it, nothing about this episode is Fair and Equal. Nessel dropped the hammer on Unlock Michigan, which raised $2.8 million in 2020, according to its tax filing. But Nessel stands mute when it comes to her wife’s campaign. Fair and Equal Michigan raised $3.5 million in 2020.
Nessel has ignored numerous requests for an explanation. And the mainstream media continues to ignore the unfolding scandal, as has become its custom.
Justice is supposed to be blind, but under our attorney general, it’s plain stupid. If ever there was a need for a special prosecutor, Nessel’s troubles would be Exhibit A.
“Don’t hold your breath,” Cutler advised me.
Who am I to argue? It’s good free advice from a guy convicted of criminal contempt of court and sentenced to 90 days of house arrest.
Then again, there’s always impeachment hearings. Republicans hold the state House now.
Charlie LeDuff is a reporter educated in public schools. Follow him on X @Charlieleduff.
