Finley: Unindicted, but names still sullied

"Unindicted co-conspirator” are ominous-sounding words that can ruin a reputation and destroy a political future. They were applied last week, without much explanation, to several Michigan residents, including former Republican officials Tom Leonard and Laura Cox, in the state’s case against 16 false presidential electors.

Neither Cox nor Leonard knew they were a target of the investigation until Howard Shock, an investigator for Attorney General Dana Nessel, said so in a courtroom. Neither were told why they are considered plotters in the election fraud conspiracy. Yet their names sit out there alongside former President Donald Trump and his attorney, Rudy Guiliani, as parties to an effort to overturn an election.

“I am unbelievably shocked at the sheer cavalier attitude that they’re approaching this with,” says Cox, a former lawmaker and state Republican Party chair. “They have named people as unindicted co-conspirators without presenting any evidence against us.”

Nor is there any indication that an explanation for the categorization will ever be made public. Unindicted co-conspirators are individuals who prosecutors link to a criminal activity, but not closely enough to charge them. Unlike indicted defendants, they have no opportunity to clear their names in courts.

The designation can be used by vindictive prosecutors to exact a penalty against those identified, without having to prove a case against them. For Leonard and Cox, the consequence is immeasurable damage to honorable reputations and careers carefully built over decades.

“I was a federal agent for 13 years and an elected official for 16 years,” Cox says. “My husband (Mike Cox) was attorney general for the state. My brother-in-law is a federal judge, and another brother-in-law and nephew are circuit court judges. And now they’ve besmirched me in a way I can’t defend myself against.”

Cox agreed to be a witness for the state, testifying to what she knew about the plot to replace legitimate electors with fake ones. Had she been informed she was a target, she says, it might have affected her testimony.

“Obviously my approach with my lawyer would have been different,” she says. Cox says she was thanked by the AG’s office for her cooperation and was told she was not suspected of any wrongdoing. Leonard would not be quoted for this column. He, too, was unaware until his name was mentioned in court that he was under investigation. A defendant who agreed to testify for the prosecution says Leonard’s wife, Jenell, who was Clinton County Republican Party chair and also named an unindicted co-conspirator, asked him to go to the Capitol to fill in for an elector. He did not implicate Tom Leonard.

Leonard ran against Attorney General Dana Nessel in 2018 and is considered one of the Republican Party’s best hopes for future political office.

“I absolutely believe this is partisan motivated,” says Cox. “Tom Leonard had nothing at all to do with this. It’s totally wrong and unethical.”

Both Cox and Leonard have asked the attorney general for a public explanation of why they’re characterized as unindicted co-conspirators and have received no response. They deserve at least that much. Tagging political opponents with such a devastating label should come with an opportunity for them to defend their names.

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