By Liz Nass
Gongwer News Service
Matt DePerno, the 2022 Republican attorney general nominee who is facing multiple felonies for allegedly obtaining voting machines, raised concerns to a House panel on Wednesday about the process that led to him being charged and Attorney General Dana Nessel’s involvement in the investigation.
DePerno testified in front of the House Oversight Weaponization of State Government Subcommittee not to prove his innocence, he said, but to address what he believes were conflicts in the process of the investigation and subsequent prosecution of his alleged involvement in obtaining voting machines following the 2020 election in Antrim County.
The Department of Attorney General, in response, said although the committee and DePerno are entitled to their own opinions, they are not entitled to their own facts, calling DePerno a “conspiracy peddler.”
During the committee, DePerno also said his right to a speedy trial is being violated. The special prosecutor trying the case responded by citing the 79 motions DePerno and his co-defendants have filed. DePerno has filed motions to try to dismiss the case multiple times and to disqualify the judge.
Following the 2020 election, DePerno was a key figure in questioning the election results, including the results in Antrim County. The election was certified statewide, courts rejected multiple lawsuits and no credible evidence of fraud has been revealed. Former President Joe Biden won Michigan by more than 150,000 votes.
On Wednesday, DePerno said Nessel’s involvement in a civil case he was trying created structural concerns and a conflict while the agency investigated potential crimes committed because DePerno and others looked into the 2020 election.
Nessel released the findings of her investigation ahead of the 2022 election – when she faced DePerno in the general election – and said she was requesting a special prosecutor.
Muskegon County Prosecutor DJ Hilson was eventually appointed and filed charges well after the 2022 election, which DePerno lost by more than 7 points.
DePerno said there should have been a discovery wall in the investigation, and he interprets the law as investigation being part of the prosecution.
Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, said she interpreted the investigative and prosecutorial processes and duties of the Department of Attorney General as separate, asking how the state is supposed to investigate crimes where eventually a recusal will be appropriate.
Kim Bush, spokesperson for Nessel, said in a statement to Gongwer News Service that immediately when the investigation developed evidence that DePerno was not just involved in, but a potentially criminally culpable subject in obtaining the voting equipment, Nessel directed the office to file a request for the special prosecutor in August 2022. Hilson was then placed on the case in September by the Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council.
“The Department of Attorney General and Attorney General Dana Nessel have had no influence, special insights, or control over this prosecution,” Bush said in a statement. “Special prosecutor assignments are not ‘an unusual process.’ In 2025, there were 693 cases placed in other offices, and 81 already assigned this year.”
Bush also said the coordinating council specifically has authority to appoint special prosecutors under statute.
DePerno also claimed that in the prosecution, Danielle Hagaman-Clark, was trying to venue shop for a different jury and prosecutor while also saying in an audio recording shared with the subcommittee that she could “charge them all with some kind of conspiracy,” claiming she was trying to manufacture a crime to bring to court.
Bush said the internal deliberations shared from Hagaman-Clark were just common discussions when “an alleged crime or series of crimes occurs in multiple venues” and that the unique nature of one of the defendants, former Rep. Daire Rendon, being a thrice elected officer led to conversations on “finding an unbiased jury pool from her home county that had elected her to state government in three successive general elections and three primary elections.”
DePerno also claimed the only reason he was being prosecuted was because he got “the train rolling” by filing an election related lawsuit, creating an environment in which others obtained access to the equipment.
“To me, that is the very definition of weaponization, and it really brings back to Dana Nessel’s ultimate goal in this from the very start, which was to prosecute people she deemed election deniers and who she thought were a threat to democracy,” DePerno said.
With this, he said Nessel’s arguments against him and other attorneys who filed 2020 election lawsuits, comparing them in the news media to extremist groups targeting the governor and fueling the fire for the Jan. 6th insurrection, proved bias in the investigation against him.
At one point in the committee, DePerno criticized Nessel’s campaign attacks against him in 2022 but classified his attacks against her as “political hyperbole.”
Another procedural issue for DePerno was his right to a speedy trial, in which Chair Rep. Angela Rigas, R-Alto, worried about a two-and-a-half-year process at the preliminary stage. DePerno said delays were caused by prosecuting attorneys not turning over discovery and questions around violations of privilege.
Hilson told Gongwer News Service that the claim the prosecution caused the delays is false, and that can be verified from court record, in which DePerno and his co-defendants filed “no less than 79 motions” in circuit and district court combined.
DePerno has filed 17 different motions, including for leave to appeal and disqualification of a judge as well as six motions to dismiss.
Regarding DePerno’s concern about missing evidence, Hilson said the special prosecutor provided thousands of documents to DePerno and his attorneys within weeks of arraignment when DePerno then asked the court for additional time to review the information.
DePerno told reporters after the committee he hasn’t done anything to “sandbag the case,” but instead, it was the prosecutors who believe they saw significant procedural issues with the grand jury process and decided to bring it back to district court.
DePerno also questioned the funds surrounding the case, emphasizing that the Muskegon County Prosecutor’s Office has not submitted invoices for prosecutorial fees.
There should be more oversight in general into the appropriations from the attorney general’s office, not only in his case, but the overall spending by Nessel by the Legislature, DePerno said.
Hilson agreed the office has not submitted invoices for their services but has asked for reimbursement to travel back and forth to Oakland County to attend court hearings.
Hilson estimated the state has paid no more than a few thousand dollars to reimburse actual costs of prosecution in the DePerno case, but he did not know what costs the Department of Attorney General has incurred.
The Department of Attorney General did not answer questions on the overall cost of the case at the time of publication.
When it comes to what DePerno wants to see from the Legislature following the testimony, he called for a review of the election code, calling its current state “a mess.” DePerno said much of the code is irrelevant these days.
This coincides with one of his arguments of his case, claiming a voting machine does not exist anymore, because the state uses tabulators.
“It's a mishmash of nonsense,” DePerno said. “It's basically a Frankenstein of rules that make no sense when read together. At some point, the legislative body should consider throwing the whole thing out and starting with something new that
actually makes sense and considers current technology, which the current election code does not consider. The definitions used in that code and in the rules refer to things that don't even exist anymore.”
Overall, Bush said it is unfortunate that DePerno has found support from Republicans on the subcommittee.
“The crime fraud exception states that a lawyer cannot commit crimes and hide behind a bar card,” Bush said. “Matt DePerno is a discredited Big Lie conspiracy peddler and a desperate criminal defendant the likes of which this office is not unfamiliar.”
Gongwer News Service
Matt DePerno, the 2022 Republican attorney general nominee who is facing multiple felonies for allegedly obtaining voting machines, raised concerns to a House panel on Wednesday about the process that led to him being charged and Attorney General Dana Nessel’s involvement in the investigation.
DePerno testified in front of the House Oversight Weaponization of State Government Subcommittee not to prove his innocence, he said, but to address what he believes were conflicts in the process of the investigation and subsequent prosecution of his alleged involvement in obtaining voting machines following the 2020 election in Antrim County.
The Department of Attorney General, in response, said although the committee and DePerno are entitled to their own opinions, they are not entitled to their own facts, calling DePerno a “conspiracy peddler.”
During the committee, DePerno also said his right to a speedy trial is being violated. The special prosecutor trying the case responded by citing the 79 motions DePerno and his co-defendants have filed. DePerno has filed motions to try to dismiss the case multiple times and to disqualify the judge.
Following the 2020 election, DePerno was a key figure in questioning the election results, including the results in Antrim County. The election was certified statewide, courts rejected multiple lawsuits and no credible evidence of fraud has been revealed. Former President Joe Biden won Michigan by more than 150,000 votes.
On Wednesday, DePerno said Nessel’s involvement in a civil case he was trying created structural concerns and a conflict while the agency investigated potential crimes committed because DePerno and others looked into the 2020 election.
Nessel released the findings of her investigation ahead of the 2022 election – when she faced DePerno in the general election – and said she was requesting a special prosecutor.
Muskegon County Prosecutor DJ Hilson was eventually appointed and filed charges well after the 2022 election, which DePerno lost by more than 7 points.
DePerno said there should have been a discovery wall in the investigation, and he interprets the law as investigation being part of the prosecution.
Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, said she interpreted the investigative and prosecutorial processes and duties of the Department of Attorney General as separate, asking how the state is supposed to investigate crimes where eventually a recusal will be appropriate.
Kim Bush, spokesperson for Nessel, said in a statement to Gongwer News Service that immediately when the investigation developed evidence that DePerno was not just involved in, but a potentially criminally culpable subject in obtaining the voting equipment, Nessel directed the office to file a request for the special prosecutor in August 2022. Hilson was then placed on the case in September by the Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council.
“The Department of Attorney General and Attorney General Dana Nessel have had no influence, special insights, or control over this prosecution,” Bush said in a statement. “Special prosecutor assignments are not ‘an unusual process.’ In 2025, there were 693 cases placed in other offices, and 81 already assigned this year.”
Bush also said the coordinating council specifically has authority to appoint special prosecutors under statute.
DePerno also claimed that in the prosecution, Danielle Hagaman-Clark, was trying to venue shop for a different jury and prosecutor while also saying in an audio recording shared with the subcommittee that she could “charge them all with some kind of conspiracy,” claiming she was trying to manufacture a crime to bring to court.
Bush said the internal deliberations shared from Hagaman-Clark were just common discussions when “an alleged crime or series of crimes occurs in multiple venues” and that the unique nature of one of the defendants, former Rep. Daire Rendon, being a thrice elected officer led to conversations on “finding an unbiased jury pool from her home county that had elected her to state government in three successive general elections and three primary elections.”
DePerno also claimed the only reason he was being prosecuted was because he got “the train rolling” by filing an election related lawsuit, creating an environment in which others obtained access to the equipment.
“To me, that is the very definition of weaponization, and it really brings back to Dana Nessel’s ultimate goal in this from the very start, which was to prosecute people she deemed election deniers and who she thought were a threat to democracy,” DePerno said.
With this, he said Nessel’s arguments against him and other attorneys who filed 2020 election lawsuits, comparing them in the news media to extremist groups targeting the governor and fueling the fire for the Jan. 6th insurrection, proved bias in the investigation against him.
At one point in the committee, DePerno criticized Nessel’s campaign attacks against him in 2022 but classified his attacks against her as “political hyperbole.”
Another procedural issue for DePerno was his right to a speedy trial, in which Chair Rep. Angela Rigas, R-Alto, worried about a two-and-a-half-year process at the preliminary stage. DePerno said delays were caused by prosecuting attorneys not turning over discovery and questions around violations of privilege.
Hilson told Gongwer News Service that the claim the prosecution caused the delays is false, and that can be verified from court record, in which DePerno and his co-defendants filed “no less than 79 motions” in circuit and district court combined.
DePerno has filed 17 different motions, including for leave to appeal and disqualification of a judge as well as six motions to dismiss.
Regarding DePerno’s concern about missing evidence, Hilson said the special prosecutor provided thousands of documents to DePerno and his attorneys within weeks of arraignment when DePerno then asked the court for additional time to review the information.
DePerno told reporters after the committee he hasn’t done anything to “sandbag the case,” but instead, it was the prosecutors who believe they saw significant procedural issues with the grand jury process and decided to bring it back to district court.
DePerno also questioned the funds surrounding the case, emphasizing that the Muskegon County Prosecutor’s Office has not submitted invoices for prosecutorial fees.
There should be more oversight in general into the appropriations from the attorney general’s office, not only in his case, but the overall spending by Nessel by the Legislature, DePerno said.
Hilson agreed the office has not submitted invoices for their services but has asked for reimbursement to travel back and forth to Oakland County to attend court hearings.
Hilson estimated the state has paid no more than a few thousand dollars to reimburse actual costs of prosecution in the DePerno case, but he did not know what costs the Department of Attorney General has incurred.
The Department of Attorney General did not answer questions on the overall cost of the case at the time of publication.
When it comes to what DePerno wants to see from the Legislature following the testimony, he called for a review of the election code, calling its current state “a mess.” DePerno said much of the code is irrelevant these days.
This coincides with one of his arguments of his case, claiming a voting machine does not exist anymore, because the state uses tabulators.
“It's a mishmash of nonsense,” DePerno said. “It's basically a Frankenstein of rules that make no sense when read together. At some point, the legislative body should consider throwing the whole thing out and starting with something new that
actually makes sense and considers current technology, which the current election code does not consider. The definitions used in that code and in the rules refer to things that don't even exist anymore.”
Overall, Bush said it is unfortunate that DePerno has found support from Republicans on the subcommittee.
“The crime fraud exception states that a lawyer cannot commit crimes and hide behind a bar card,” Bush said. “Matt DePerno is a discredited Big Lie conspiracy peddler and a desperate criminal defendant the likes of which this office is not unfamiliar.”
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