Nessel blasts commission responsible for investigating lawyers' wrongdoing

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said that the commission responsible for investigating attorneys' wrongdoing has mishandled its cases against lawyers facing criminal charges related to their alleged efforts to undermine the 2020 presidential election. And now, she said, she worries it will open the door to election chaos next year.

The Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission reviews allegations of professional misconduct against attorneys. It files formal complaints against lawyers with the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board, which can take a range of actions against attorneys such as suspension or disbarment.

Two Michigan lawyers facing criminal charges for their involvement in the alleged schemes targeting the 2020 election have so far not faced any disciplinary action.

Nessel said that the legal profession is an outlier in allowing licensed attorneys to continue practicing even when they're bound over for trial. She said she sees a disciplinary process that fails to hold attorneys accountable and undermines the legal profession.

"It's appalling that the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission refuses to move forward with disciplinary hearings against attorneys accused of election-related crimes," Nessel wrote in a recent social media post. Nessel said it's problematic to allow indicted attorneys to continue practicing law while their criminal cases remain pending. "The fact that they're not suspended during the interim is mind-boggling," Nessel told the Free Press.

Michael Goetz, the Grievance Administrator for the commission, said that it is "improper" for Nessel "to criticize another state agency without having all the facts." But he didn't want to elaborate on his frustrations. "I'm not here to bash her, I'm here to do a job," he told the Free Press. "That's the only comment I want to make on that."

Nessel publicly blasted the Attorney Grievance Commission after an Attorney Discipline Board panel agreed to the commission's request to temporarily suspend its proceedings against Mayra Rodriguez, a Republican charged by Nessel's office for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election by signing a fake certificate pledging Michigan's Electoral College votes to former President Donald Trump.

Goetz said that it's not uncommon to temporarily suspend the disciplinary process if a lawyer accused of misconduct also faces criminal charges because they might assert their Fifth Amendment right to self-incrimination. "That takes a whole witness out of the bailiwick, if you will, to be able to ask questions, cross-examine, test the veracity of what they're saying," he said. If there's a criminal conviction, Goetz said that the commission can "proceed by way of a judgment of conviction," which he said can help streamline the process.

In addition to Rodriguez, the Attorney Grievance Commission filed complaints alleging professional misconduct against a group of nine attorneys involved in a federal lawsuit that sought to overturn Michigan's 2020 election. But the commission voluntarily dismissed their complaints against two of the lawyers: Stefanie Lambert Junttila and Emily Newman. Asked to explain the basis for the dismissals, the Attorney Grievance Commission's Deputy Administrator Kimberly Uhuru cited a federal appeals court panel ruling reversing sanctions imposed on the pair by a lower court. A special prosecutor later announced criminal charges against Lambert brought by a grand jury stemming from an alleged scheme she help orchestrate to seize voting machines in the wake of the 2020 election.

Nessel also criticized the Attorney Grievance Commission's decision to voluntarily dismiss charges of professional misconduct leveled against some of the lawyers involved in the 2020 election lawsuit. She noted the different standards that must be reached to determine whether someone has engaged in professional misconduct, actions a court deems sanctionable and criminal activity. A lawyer should still face potential disciplinary action even if they didn’t commit a crime or a court decided not to impose sanctions, she said.

Consider police officers, Nessel said: "Just because you weren’t convicted of a crime, doesn’t mean you didn’t commit an offense that’s egregious enough that you don’t deserve to carry a gun and badge," she said. "And I would say the same thing of attorneys."

But Nessel said lawyers are out of step with other licensed professionals, from dentists to masseuses, who are regularly suspended amid ongoing investigations into their professional conduct, especially if they face serious criminal allegations. Instead, Nessel said, she observes an attorney discipline process that allows lawyers to keep filing cases and representing clients unless they are convicted.

Nessel doesn't want to wait for criminal convictions to see attorneys disciplined with another presidential election around the corner. "Without the lawyers, none of this effort to undermine the 2020 presidential election occurs," she said. And they could have the chance to do it again soon if allowed, she said.

Asked how another presidential election on the horizon might impact efforts to discipline lawyers accused of meddling in the last one, Goetz dismissed the idea that the political cycle has any bearing on the discipline process or its timing.

"We're not going to speculate what could happen in the future," he said. The commission is focused on the facts it has on hand now, he added.

Contact Clara Hendrickson: chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Nessel criticizes Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission