LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson both appear to have the habit of not turning over documents requested by the state House.

Nessel’s document disaster.

In the latest skirmish between the Michigan House Oversight Committee and the state’s top Democrats, Rep. Angela Rigas (R-Caledonia) lambasted Nessel for failing to turn over the correct documents regarding the Flint Water Crisis prosecutions.

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Rigas, who chairs the House Oversight Subcommittee on Weaponization of State Government, said Nessel had ample time to get the documents together after an original deadline of March 25 received an eight-week extension.

According to Rigas, Nessel provided a flash drive with the documents on Wednesday, May 21. Rigas described the documents on the flash drive as “a mass array of unrelated documents that were never requested.” She added, “Nessel’s office sent us an incomplete, incoherent mess of documents on a password-protected flash drive like they were bringing us the Holy Grail.” Rigas also blasted Nessel for sending the same documents to several media outlets.

What is in the requested documents?

Nessel’s office spent years trying to make criminal charges stick against city and state employees for their alleged role in the water crisis. One-by-one, courts dismissed those charges. Nessel tried to bring the charges again with a one-judge grand jury but those charges were thrown out as well.

The committee requested billable hours, legal fees, and associated costs from Nessel’s office related to its prosecutions in the Flint Water Crisis. In addition, it requested state funds spent on the cases, copies of contracts and memos, and a summary of reimbursements, settlements, or cost recoveries.

Rigas said Nessel’s office only partially fulfilled the request regarding contracts and memos. “Dana Nessel and her office have consistently failed to meet deadline after deadline, and it’s unacceptable,” Rigas said. “She has failed to follow simple directions and comply with what has so clearly been requested. There will be no more extensions. No more games. This ends now.”

Benson’s blunders.

Submitting incorrect documents to the House is also on Benson’s resume. For months, the House Oversight Committee has requested election training materials from Benson’s office. The committee eventually served her a subpoena, and she turned over the wrong documents.

While Benson touted that she turned over the documents and protected “sensitive information related to election security,” Representatives Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay Township) and Rachelle Smit (R-Martin) say they’ve requested an in-person, private meeting to clear those matters up.

“The Secretary of State’s office should look at our invitation as us giving them the benefit of the doubt for their frankly appalling lack of transparency,” DeBoyer and Smit said. “If they actually have confidential materials that cannot, for whatever reason, be disclosed to legislators, they should be able to show us that in a private setting.”

Benson’s byte-sized problems.

Benson, who is running for governor, is also facing backlash over her department’s ineptitude at rolling out a state-mandated website where politicians disclose their finances. Politicians expressed frustration over navigating the Michigan Transparency Network (MiTN). In addition, MiTN is designed to promote governmental transparency but that aspect of the website had problems too.

Last week, the Michigan legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer cleaned up Benson’s mess when it passed a new law to extend a deadline for politicians and their financial disclosures. Setting up MiTN cost taxpayers $9 million.

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Earlier this week, the House Oversight Committee heard testimony from Tyler Technologies, the company that helped set up MiTN and the previous website that collected similar information. DeBoyer referred to Benson’s actions as “an embarrassment.”

“Only our inept bureaucracy would pay the same technology company that ran our old financial disclosure system millions of taxpayers’ dollars for a new website, then shut down the old site before the new product is even finished,” DeBoyer said. “We’ve long known about our Secretary of State’s reckless decision to implement her new disclosure system despite a myriad of obvious problems. Now we learn that the software company she wasted so many tax dollars on literally owned the old site, and that she could’ve easily kept it running until her new project was ready. Jocelyn Benson’s negligence is an embarrassment to our state.”

Nessel and Benson in cahoots.

Benson’s gubernatorial campaign rollout appeared to be as smooth as the MiTN website. Nessel’s office determined on Monday that Benson did violate campaign finance law when she announced her run in the lobby of the Richard H. Austin building in January. However, Nessel acknowledged law did not allow for civil or criminal charges.

Rigas said Nessel’s actions indicate she only wants to “save face” after years of protecting fellow Democrats and targeting those on the other side of the political aisle.

“This wasn’t justice,” Rigas said. “It was damage control, and it proves everything we’ve said about Nessel’s partisan double standards.”