Former Republican Michigan Attorneys General Mike Cox (left) and Bill Schuette (right) testify to the House Weaponization of State Government Committee. March 19, 2025. Photo by Anna Liz Nichols.
Former Republican Attorneys General of Michigan Mike Cox and Bill Schuette talked about keeping politics out of the office of the attorney general and maintaining commitment to public safety during the Michigan House Weaponization of State Government Committee meeting on Wednesday, offering critiques of current Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel.
The committee, new this session, will be dedicated to examining political weaponization of state departments and agencies, said Chair Rep. Angela Rigas (R-Alto).
She zeroed Wednesday’s committee in on Nessel, recalling her participation in “Operation Haircut” in May of 2020 where she and other hairstylists and barbers gathered on the Capitol lawn amid Covid-19 lockdown orders, with Rigas and others being criminally charged, though the charges were later dropped.
“…in 2020 I was ticketed for a First Amendment event, and ultimately our current attorney general tried stripping my professional business license for that,” Rigas told the committee Wednesday. “That’s a clear example of weaponization of state government, so I appreciate you here to give the committee and the people of Michigan a clear understanding of the proper role of that office.”
Cox, who served as Michigan’s attorney general from 2003 to 2011 and Schuette who served in that role from 2011 to 2019, concurred that it is not the job of the state attorney general to assert their own politics, rather to uphold the law.
“The Michigan Constitution is a mosaic of the people of Michigan, and it’s not like a box of candy where you get to choose if you like the caramels or the raspberry cream,” Schuette said. “You have to defend the Constitution, even if you disagree with them, and politics should not be at the heart of what you do. The laws of governing the people of the state of Michigan should be the heart of what you do.”
State Rep. Dylan Wegela (D-Garden City) zeroed in on the shared sentiments of enforcing the law, leaving personal politics out of things and upholding the constitution, referencing Cox joining Republican-led efforts to oppose Obama administration health care reforms amid his own gubernatorial run and Schuette’s defense of the ban in the state constitution on gay marriage.
Both men asserted that they were adhering to the defense of the state constitution, though both endeavors drew hefty criticism of politics while they were happening.
Rigas cut Wegla’s line of questioning short in favor of moving on to other members’ questions.
Cox, who is among Michigan Republicans considering a run for governor in 2026, focused the bulk of his criticisms of Nessel on the prosecution of the 16 individuals her office says submitted fake results for the 2020 election falsely asserting Michigan voters had chosen now-president Donald Trump. In reality, former President Joe Biden defeated Trump in Michigan by more than 150,000 votes.
A few weeks after Nessel announced the charges, she spoke at a virtual event calling the defendants, who would have been the rightful Republican electors had Trump won, as “brainwashed” by Trump’s lies that the election was stolen. The defense has referenced Nessel’s sentiments to show lack of criminal intent by the group.
“These are people who have been brainwashed,” Nessel said in the video, which has been played in court. “They legit believe that … somebody can’t even plead guilty if they wanted to because they can’t admit that what they did violated the law because they still think they’re right.”
The comments jeopardized the appearance of fair administration of the law, Cox remarked, adding that they show an obvious contradiction to the charges Nessel’s office are pursuing as her own words convey that the defendants thought Biden was not elected to the office of president.
“That’s the premise… if you read the complaint, but then two months later, the Attorney General, the top dog, is saying these people legitimately believed Trump won, that she totally undermined her case, completely undermined her case,” Cox said. “I didn’t really get the charges.”
A request for comment has yet to be returned by Nessel’s office.
Cox added that electors are typically people who have volunteered for decades and aren’t lawyers who would have known what some of the procedures are and instead simply “show up and are directed”.
The group includes, a national committeewoman of the Republican Party of Michigan, a township clerk and a former chair for the state Republican party.
Rigas said the committee will be holding a hearing at some point in regards to the Attorney General’s case against the group of electors.
The committee is also set to review the attorney general’s office’s handling of prosecutions stemming from the Flint Water Crisis which led to no convictions. Last week, Republican members of the committee sent a letter to Nessel’s office requesting documentation of expenditures the office made during the case.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.