LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel violated a self-imposed “isolation wall” set up to avoid a conflict of interest and received reports of a criminal investigation involving a political ally she had a personal relationship with, according to testimony at a Legislative hearing at the Capitol on Tuesday.

Nessel was accused of intervening on behalf of Traci Kornak, a Grand Rapids-based attorney who was accused of taking financial advantage of a brain damaged elderly woman in which she was a court-appointed conservator. The case started in 2022.

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Kornak was a part of Nessel’s transition team in 2019 and was the treasurer for the Michigan Democratic Party.

In one December 2022 email from Nessel to her staff revealed during Tuesday’s hearing, Nessel said Kornak had contacted her regarding her case, and the AG’s investigation of Kornak was holding up a potential judicial appointment for Kornak in Kent County.

Nessel’s email stated: “She [Kornak] has requested the documents from our investigation. Will she need to FOIA them? I think [she] wants to be able to assert that the claims made by [redacted] were never substantiated by our investigation and the case is closed. … There is some urgency to this matter in that she needs to supply this information by the week’s end.”

Investigators said that Nessel’s December 2022 email was sent months after the isolation wall had been put in place. According to testimony, the AG investigation was ongoing for more than 40 days before the isolation wall was first put in place in August 2022. Investigators said the isolation wall should have been put in place as soon as Nessel knew her office was investigating someone she had a personal relationship with.

The AG’s investigation into Kornak was closed less than two weeks later due to “insufficient evidence.” The Kent County Sheriff’s Department concluded criminal charges should be filed against Kornak in this matter, according to testimony provided on Tuesday.

Efforts to contact Kornak by Michigan News Source at her Grand Rapids offices were not successful. Nessel’s office didn’t respond to emails from Michigan News Source seeking comment.

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Nessel was not present at the meeting, although the committee asked her to show up. The commission put an empty seat at a table with her nametag on it.

Nessel’s office did send a response to similar claims in a Detroit News article in 2023.

“The isolation wall was established to prevent the Attorney General from influencing the decision-making during the investigation in observance of the potential for the appearance of impropriety stemming from the Attorney General and the subject’s former professional interactions,” the AG’s letter stated. “The isolation wall’s purpose is not to prevent any and all communications between the Attorney General and her staff related to the investigation. This is why the isolation wall explicitly states that such communications are permitted where they do not violate a rule of professional conduct. None of the communications between Attorney General Nessel and her staff violated any rule of professional conduct.”

The hearing Tuesday disputed that understanding of the isolation wall. Testimony read from the actual isolation wall agreement stated that Nessel should be refrained from receiving “any information related to this matter from or provide any information related to this matter to [the] Attorney General.”