Michigan's Republican Senate leader Aric Nesbitt just went straight to the Department of Justice and asked them to investigate Governor Gretchen Whitmer over a $20 million fraud scheme — and honestly, it's about time someone with a spine put this in writing. Nesbitt, who is also running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, sent the request directly to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Twenty million dollars. That buys a lot of magazine covers and presidential ambitions, doesn't it, Governor?
Here's the setup. Earlier this month, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced 16 felony charges against Fay Beydoun, a 62-year-old woman from Farmington Hills. Beydoun is accused of misusing a $20 million grant that was supposed to fund a business accelerator startup program. Instead, the money apparently went on a little detour. And here's the part that makes this Whitmer's problem: Beydoun is described as a political donor and close ally of the governor.
Funny how that works. The money was supposed to help Michigan businesses. It ended up in the orbit of someone who helped fund Whitmer's political operation. Sixteen felony charges don't just materialize out of thin air.
Nesbitt isn't pulling punches. In his letter to Blanche, he laid out exactly why this needs federal eyes: "Michigan faces a unique crisis of oversight... conflict of interest that calls into question whether the Michigan attorney general can impartially investigate." Translation: Nessel is a Democrat, Whitmer is a Democrat, and expecting one to seriously investigate the other is like expecting the fox to audit the henhouse.
He went further, as reported by Just The News: "Michigan deserves a governor who works for everyone in this state, not favored cronies who fund her lifestyle." Cronies who fund her lifestyle. That's not legislative boilerplate — that's a man who smells blood in the water.
Nesbitt also promised this isn't going away: "We are going to follow the money, uncover the truth and deliver justice."
Now, Whitmer has spent years positioning herself as the serious, responsible adult in the Democratic Party. She survived the kidnapping plot narrative, rode COVID lockdowns to national fame, and somehow convinced half the Beltway press corps she was presidential material. But $20 million in alleged fraud connected to your inner circle is a different kind of problem. You can't executive-order your way out of a DOJ probe.
The request for federal involvement is the key move here. Nesbitt knows that Michigan's own attorney general has a built-in conflict of interest — Nessel and Whitmer are political allies. By going over Nessel's head to the DOJ, Nesbitt is forcing the issue into a jurisdiction where party loyalty can't run interference.
This is Republicans playing offense at the state level, and it's exactly the kind of thing we need more of. Don't just complain about Democratic corruption on cable news — file the paperwork, name names, and force an investigation.
Big Gretch might want to cancel a few of those keynote speeches and call her lawyers. Twenty million dollars' worth of fraud allegations tend to put a damper on the "integrity" brand.