No Charges Filed In Unlock Michigan Investigation: Nessel

LANSING, MI — No charges will be filed following an investigation into alleged unethical practices by petition circulators for Unlock Michigan, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Wednesday.

The Michigan Attorney General's Office opened its investigation into Unlock Michigan in September 2020 following reports suggesting irregularities in how circulators got signatures.

The investigation found "clear evidence of misrepresentations by petition circulators and questionable training by persons who recruited and supervised paid circulators," Nessel said in a statement. However, the irregularities were not in violation of any criminal statute, Nessel said. In total, nine people were investigated.

“A well-informed public is essential to the health of our democracy, and as such, I hope the review of the circumstances in the Unlock Michigan case serves as a reminder to residents to be aware of the questionable practices utilized by those presenting themselves as agents of the democratic process,” Nessel said. “It is clear from this investigation that some paid circulators may resort to unethical practices in order to fulfill the demands of their clients.”

Related: Michigan Group Petitions To Revoke Whitmer Emergency Powers

A petition started by Unlock Michigan aimed to repeal the Emergency Powers of Governor Act of 1945, which allows governors to issue state of emergencies during a crisis and was used frequently amid the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Questions persisted regarding how the group was able to raise its signatures. According to a report published Tuesday by Paul Egan of The Detroit Free Press, the group paid people to give false information, illegally collect signatures and trespassed on private property. The report cited a secretly recorded videotape.

According to the report, the group paid people $3.50 per signature while telling them "they can" do illegal things to acquire signatures.

Related: Michigan AG Nessel Opens Investigation Into Unlock Michigan

The video purported to show Erik Tisinger, an employee of In the Field, promoting unethical signature-gathering tactics, Nessel's office said. A second report revealed Mark Jacoby, owner of Let the Voters Decide, had a criminal record for falsifying his voter registration and a history of using unethical tactics in other petition drives around the country.

Nessel's office said Tisinger made untrue statements in the video recording, including claiming that signing a petition would have the effect of placing onto the ballot the repeal of Michigan’s Emergency Powers of the Governor Act of 1945, as opposed to the accurate process which was to place the issue before the state legislature for consideration.

Three additional videos, presumably recorded by another employee of Farough and Associates, licensed attorney Gretchen Hertz, were also investigated by Nessel's office.

Related: Groups Calls For Halt In Review Of Unlock Michigan Signatures

Nessel said state law does not expressly prohibit a circulator from making false statements to a voter about the purpose of a petition in an attempt to obtain the voter's signature. The attorney general also said there is no provision in law that imposes a criminal sanction for making misrepresentations to a voter to induce him or her to sign a ballot question petition.

There is no law that directly prohibits a circulator from simply advising a voter that he or she may sign their spouse's name, or the name of any other person, on a petition, she added, while saying state law does prohibit a voter from signing someone else's name to a ballot question petition.

Hertz crossed the line from simply recording questionable advice from circulators to engaging in criminal conduct when she signed someone else’s name to petitions, Nessel said. Hertz’s conduct created a significant hurdle to pursuing criminal charges in the Unlock Michigan case, she said.