Nessel levels charges against two GOP political fundraisers in campaign against Whitmer

Lansing — Attorney General Dana Nessel unveiled criminal charges Wednesday against two longtime Republican fundraisers who were allegedly involved in an effort to conceal the names of donors to a campaign to reduce Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's emergency powers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Heather Lombardini and Sandy Baxter helped raise money for the Unlock Michigan ballot proposal committee in 2020 and 2021 through nonprofit organizations that didn't have to identify their contributors, Nessel said at a press conference. By moving the dollars through the nonprofits first, the donors didn't have to be revealed publicly.

If they had given directly to the controversial Unlock Michigan petition effort, the committee would have had to report their names. The two nonprofits, both tied to then-Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, gave about $2.7 million to Unlock Michigan.

“It was done specifically with the intent to evade that very reporting that is required under the Michigan Campaign Finance Act," said Nessel, who's a Democrat.

On at least two checks to the nonprofits, donors wrote "Unlock Michigan" in the memo line, according to an affidavit filed in Ingham County District Court by Nessel's office. Multiple donors told Nessel's team that Shirkey had informed them about Unlock Michigan but directed them to give to the nonprofits, the affidavit said.

Baxter and Shirkey didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Lawyers for Lombardini declined to comment on the charges Wednesday.

The charges were the latest in a bevy of criminal allegations against influential figures in Lansing, where money from anonymous donors has been allowed to flow to benefit officeholders for years, despite warnings that it could lead to corruption.

Over the last six months alone, former House Speaker Rick Johnson and two lobbyists were sentenced prison for their roles in a bribery scheme, and two high-ranking former House staffers were charged with embezzling money from nonprofit accounts.

More:How Chatfield aides allegedly used secret political cash for Hawaii trip, Gucci, meals

On Wednesday, Nessel's office charged Lombardini, co-founder of the Lansing-based consulting firm Bright Spark Strategies, with three misdemeanor violations of the state's campaign finance law and a 14-year felony of uttering and publishing — willfully making or publishing a false statement with the intent to defraud. The felony was tied to Lombardini's signing an affidavit in September 2020, denying that funds had been solicited through the nonprofit Michigan Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility for the purpose of giving the dollars to Unlock Michigan.

"We allege that not only was this not true, but Lombardini knew that it was not true," Nessel said.

Lombardini's affidavit was filed in response to a campaign finance complaint that was being handled by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's office. Lombardini, 47, of Okemos is one of the most active political fundraisers in Lansing, having previously worked with both state Senate Republicans and state House Republicans.

Baxter, who has a firm called TopFundraising.com, was involved in raising money for Unlock Michigan through the nonprofit Michigan! My Michigan! and provided investigators "false information while under oath," Nessel said.

Baxter, 63, of Caledonia, a past finance director for the Michigan Republican Party, is charged with perjury, a 15-year felony.

She allegedly told investigations in a March 10, 2023, interview that she had no direct contact with Shirkey "regarding helping out with donations for Unlock Michigan," according to an affidavit from the Attorney General's office. However, Baker had sent an email to Shirkey on Aug. 6, 2020, that included a memo she had written regarding her thoughts on how to raise money for Unlock Michigan, according to the affidavit.

"Other emails show Baxter, Lombardini and Shirkey discussing calls Baxter was making to donors for Shirkey and donor checks for Unlock Michigan being sent to the undisclosed accounts," the affidavit added.

The Unlock campaign

Unlock Michigan successfully gathered signatures in 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, to repeal a longstanding law that allowed Whitmer to declare a state of emergency and keep the declaration in place without input from lawmakers.

In October 2020, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that Whitmer violated her constitutional authority by continuing to issue orders to combat COVID-19 without the approval of state lawmakers and that the 1945 Emergency Powers of the Governor Act she relied on was unconstitutional.

The ballot measure sought to get the 1945 law off the books in case the Supreme Court's majority shifted in future elections and reversed their ruling.

The majority of the ballot committee's money came from the two nonprofit organizations tied to state Senate Republicans, Michigan Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility and Michigan! My Michigan.

The Detroit News first reported on the mystery money flowing to Unlock Michigan on July 27, 2020.

Bob LaBrant, a longtime elections lawyer in Lansing who previously worked for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, submitted a complaint to Benson's office against the organizations. His filing contended that Shirkey, a Republican, used the nonprofit accounts to raise millions of dollars from secret sources for Unlock Michigan, acting as a ballot proposal campaign without having to follow the state's disclosure requirements.

But Nessel said Wednesday that Shirkey won't be charged in the investigation.

'Mike Shirkey knew'

The attorney general said her office had reviewed more than 80,000 emails and more than 1,000 documents, including bank statements from the nonprofits.

The evidence will eventually show that Shirkey "repeatedly bragged" about controlling multiple "dark money" organizations, Nessel said. But he wasn't an official officer of the organizations in filed paperwork, meaning he wasn't directly responsible for their actions.

It didn't appear that under current Michigan laws that Shirkey could be charged, Nessel added.

"Mike Shirkey knew exactly what he was doing," Nessel said. "But, on the other hand, the law is what the law is. It says what it says. And he is not an officer, as it pertains to the strict definition under the Michigan campaign finance laws."

Nessel said the possibility of filing a conspiracy charge against Shirkey, who left the Senate because of term limits at the end of 2022, would have involved only a 90-day campaign finance misdemeanor.

But an affidavit, written by Jennifer Kapushinski, an investigator for Nessel's office, alleged that Shirkey, a top lawmaker, was heavily involved in collecting money from secret donors to benefit Unlock Michigan.

"Shirkey's emails revealed several blatant solicitations for the Unlock Michigan's ballot initiative that directed donors to MMM (Michigan! My Michigan!) and MCFR (Michigan Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility) to avoid disclosure," Kapushinski wrote.

'Facilitated the logistics'

In January 2022, Benson's office referred the LaBrant complaint against the two nonprofit organizations to Nessel's office for the potential enforcement of any criminal penalties.

Adam Fracassi of the Michigan Bureau of Elections found that contributions by the nonprofits were closely followed by expenditures from Unlock Michigan "totaling an almost identical value." It was clear the nonprofits "coordinated to some extent with Unlock," Fracassi found.

"Such fundraising for the purpose of supporting a ballot question committee, as is evidenced in the instant case, makes MCFR and MMM themselves ballot question committees responsible for registration and for filing appropriate campaign statements," Fracassi wrote in one letter to a lawyer for the two nonprofits.

Nessel's investigation appeared to back up the findings, saying, in the new affidavit, that Shirkey, Lombardini and Baxter "solicited money for the Unlock Michigan" ballot committee through the nonprofits.

"Heather Lombardini routinely facilitated the logistics of these contributions, and on at least one occasion solicited a contribution herself," the affidavit said.

Lombardini's campaign finance charges were two counts of failing to file a campaign finance statement of organization, which would bring a $1,000 fine, and one count of failing to file a campaign statement, a misdemeanor that could involve up to 90 days in jail.

cmauger@detroitnews.com