Lansing — Former Michigan House Speaker Jason Wentworth has spoken with investigators from Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office regarding its probe of a $20 million grant given to Fay Beydoun, and the Clare County Republican “has been fully cooperative,” Nessel’s office said Thursday.
A 41-page charging document released Wednesday in relation to 16 criminal counts leveled against Beydoun, a Democratic political donor and appointee, referred several times to Wentworth and efforts to persuade him to place the grant in the budget. But the affidavit included no description of the attorney general’s interview with the Republican former speaker, though it included excerpts from interviews with other individuals involved in the case.
Wentworth argued in 2023 that although he was listed in the documentation as the grant sponsor and had been approached by Beydoun about the grant, he was not supportive of it and was not its actual sponsor.
On Thursday, Wentworth’s attorney, Brian Lennon, provided a short statement on the former speaker’s involvement in the investigation: “If you ask the attorney general, she will tell you that Jason Wentworth has provided his complete cooperation.”
Danny Wimmer, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, confirmed as much Thursday: “Our office has spoken with the former Speaker, and he has been fully cooperative with our efforts.”
It’s not unusual for a charging document, like the 41-page affidavit in Beydoun’s case, to exclude some interviews or evidence the prosecution may have, said Wade Fink, a Troy-based criminal defense attorney. Generally, charging documents do not include “even close to the full extent of what may or may not be evidence in the case,” he said.
“Rather, the charging document states just enough to meet the probable cause standard for charges,” Fink said. “When discovery begins, Ms. Beydoun’s defense attorney will be entitled to the statements of all witnesses, including cooperators, but the inclusion or exclusion of statements in the document does not tell the whole story.”
The $20 million grant at issue in the case was included in about $1 billion in pork spending added hours before passage of the 2023 fiscal year budget. At that time, in the summer of 2022, Wentworth led the House chamber, and Republican former Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey ran the Senate.
The grant, meant for an international business accelerator called Global Link International, raised concerns in 2023 when The Detroit News reported that Global Link hadn’t been incorporated with the state until after passage of the budget, that Wentworth had denied sponsorship and that Beydoun was a former vice chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, a Democratic donor and an appointee of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The MEDC was tasked with administering the grant.
A year later, The News reported Beydoun had used some of the first $10 million of the grant on expenses such as a $4,500 coffeemaker and an $11,000 first-class ticket to Budapest.
At that point in 2024, Nessel’s office began investigating the grant and, on Wednesday, issued 16 charges against Beydoun related to expenses such as Tunisian rugs, catering for political events and an allegedly forged attorney invoice to the state grant meant for Global Link.
The 41-page affidavit made public Wednesday by Nessel’s office, as well as Wentworth’s past comments to The News, indicate Beydoun and Okemos businessman Sharif Hussein had contacted Wentworth prior to budget passage about the possibility of securing funding for the business accelerator in the state budget.
Wentworth denied sponsorship of $20M grant
Wentworth told The News in 2023 that he met with Beydoun about her plans for Global Link International before budget negotiations started in earnest, but he said he decided not to prioritize state funding for the project after that meeting.
“It’s not something that I opposed, but it’s not something that I made a priority or supported,” Wentworth said at the time. “I did not advocate for this.”
Beydoun, when she spoke with The News in 2023, initially said she didn’t remember which lawmaker sponsored the project. When informed that the grant application listed Wentworth as the sponsor, she said the former speaker was the sponsor.
“I spoke with multiple people,” Beydoun said. “It was an effort from many different sources. It wasn’t just one person in particular. They all felt like it was something that was much needed.”
Hussein said in 2023 that it was “absolutely” his understanding that Wentworth was the sponsor.
Whitmer’s office, when asked about the grant, has consistently directed questions to the former House speaker.
Affidavit includes text messages sent to Wentworth about Beydoun’s grant
The affidavit filed by Nessel’s office in court includes texts from Hussein to Wentworth about the grant in January 2022, stating the Democratic governor had “cleared” the project.
“As you requested during our last meeting, everything has been cleared by the governor and her team regarding the line item inclusion,” Hussein’s text message to Wentworth said. “Their (sic) will be no negotiations on the line item and it will be understood that agreement is in place to move forward.”
In March or April 2022, Hussein sent another message to Wentworth that was included in Nessel’s affidavit that indicated the governor’s office and Whitmer’s chief operating officer, Tricia Foster, were supportive of the grant.
“…just wanted to let you know that we’ve confirmed with the governor’s office and with Trish her COO that they are still onboard and are expecting to see the line item inclusion in the upcoming supplemental budget,” Hussein wrote. “I wanted again to ensure that no negotiations will take place and it will not be leveraged.”
Hussein told investigators, according to the affidavit, that he vouched for the project in communications with Wentworth, Shirkey and then Democratic Sen. Curtis Hertel, who was involved in budget negotiations.
“Hussein told investigators that Jason Wentworth’s office told Hussein that the grant funding was in the annual budget,” the affidavit said. “Hussein was then told the funding was being pushed back to the supplemental budget, and it eventually appeared in 2022 PA 166.”
Hussein told investigators, according to the affidavit, that most of his conversations with Wentworth’s office were with the speaker’s budget director Phil Browne.
Other emails included in the affidavit show Browne requesting more information on the grant from Hussein for the grant application after the budget bill was passed.
Hussein told investigators that he did not speak directly with anyone in the governor’s office about the grant and relied on Beydoun for the information he relayed about the governor’s position.
Michael Manley, an attorney for Hussein, said Thursday his client has “cooperated fully and freely since the inception of this investigation.”
“He was appalled by decisions that were made that were inconsistent with the intent of the grant and was removed immediately upon expressing those concerns,” Manley said, in an apparent reference to Beydoun cutting him out of the project in May 2023.
eleblanc@detroitnews.com
cmauger@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Ex-Michigan House speaker cooperating in Fay Beydoun investigation
Reporting by Beth LeBlanc and Craig Mauger, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
