I gave a statement on the floor of the Michigan Senate today calling on investigators to reopen the case looking into Speaker of the House Jase Bolger and Representative Roy Schmidt's election fraud scheme. Take a look at the video below!
Transcript follows:
Like many people around the state, I was disappointed to hear the news that Speaker Bolger’s election fraud case remains, at best, unresolved. As further documents have become public through the Freedom of Information Act in recent days we have gained a better understanding of the depth of the third-rate conspiracy that Representatives Bolger and Schmidt tried to pull on the people of Michigan.
The Kent County Prosecutor’s report slammed the Speaker, and Representative Schmidt, for what they did, but concluded under a narrow review of election law, no laws were broken. However, based on the evidence we now have available, it appears that the prosecutor should examine their conduct, and that of newly known parties, under other areas of the law.
While the Speaker and Representative Schmidt used Prosecutor Forsyth’s report to claim they’d been completely vindicated of any criminal wrongdoing, now we know that the report was based on an incomplete investigation, and narrow scope of review. With these new revelations, it’s become clear, that further investigation is sorely needed.
The dots are not hard to connect. Michigan election law identifies perjury as a person who makes a false affidavit, or swears falsely while under oath, for the purposes of, among other things, qualifying as a candidate for elective office.
It appears this has taken place.
Michigan law further identifies racketeering as conspiracy to commit, or aiding and abetting a person to commit an offense concerning perjury, or subornation of perjury. That can be further defined as procuring another person to commit the crime of perjury, not to mention the underlying conspiracy itself to engage in all of these activities.
For unknown reasons, Mr. Forsyth limited his criminal review and only looked at election law, and has thus concluded that none of election laws have been broken, but it’s becoming more and more clear that a wider review could conclude far differently. The people of Michigan deserve accountability, and they deserve the truth. And today I’m calling on everyone involved to deliver that.
With the recent Gongwer revelations, we now know that:
1) Representative Posthumus-Lyons appears to be complicit as well in obstruction and conspiracy after the fact.
2) The Secretary of State has already helped to stall and obstruct the State police investigation.
3) The police investigation itself was called off before search warrants could be executed to provide us with all of the facts in the case.
We also know that Attorney General Bill Schuette is content to sweep this under the rug by his own words, as is Governor Snyder, who is trying to wash his hands of this by claiming it’s a “legislative affair”.
I ask you, of all the people vested with responsibility to ensure that our elections are legal and have integrity, to protect our fundamental right to vote, of all these people, at best, they’re asleep at the wheel. At worst – they’ve conspired to take away our vote. And if they do it to the people of Grand Rapids, I ask you, how long is it before they do it to the rest of us?
Accordingly, I’m asking Mr. Forsyth today to reopen his case. I’m calling on the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Governor, to partner, and make sure that we protect the people of Michigan instead of being obstacles to the truth. To do otherwise sends a message to the world – it’s more important to protect your political allies than to uncover the truth, and that’s not the kind of Michigan I know we all want it to be.
Now that more of the facts have been revealed, and now that we know the investigation was left unfinished, I’m calling on it to be reopened so that the people of Michigan can finally get the answers they deserve. We still don’t know the answer to the most crucial question – who’s actually protecting the public we’re all sworn to serve?