Gee, Corruption Much?

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has droped charges against University of Michigan pro-Palestinian protesters after it was revealed that she had what should have been disqualifying ties to the school's board of regents.

This creates the appearance of corruption.  She should have recused herself:

Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, announced on Monday that she was dropping all charges against seven pro-Palestinian demonstrators arrested last May at a University of Michigan encampment.

The announcement came just moments before the judge was to decide on a defense motion to disqualify Nessel’s office over alleged bias. Defense attorney Amir Makled said the motion largely stemmed from an October Guardian report detailing Nessel’s extensive personal, financial and political connections to university regents calling for the activists to be prosecuted.

These ties?

• $33,000 in campaign donations from university regents.
• Her office hired the law office of the regent who chaired her 2018 campaign.
• Her office was more than 8½ times more likely to prosecute protesters than the local DAs. 
  

“This was a case of selective prosecution and rooted in bias, not in public safety issues,” Makled added. “We’re hoping this sends a message to other institutions locally and nationally that protest is not a crime, and dissent is not disorder.”

It certainly seems that way.

………

The Guardian’s investigation revealed concrete evidence of conflicts that defense attorneys argued factored into the prosecutions. Among the findings, the story revealed Nessel’s office charged pro-Palestinian protesters at a higher rate than other state prosecutors.

Nessel was recruited by university regents, who were frustrated by local prosecutors’ unwillingness to crack down on most of the students arrested, to take over the case and file charges, three people with direct knowledge of the decision told the Guardian at the time.

The investigation also found that six of eight regents contributed more than $33,000 combined to Nessel’s campaigns. Additionally, her office hired a regent’s law firm to handle major state cases, and the same regent co-chaired her 2018 campaign. Meanwhile, Nessel received significant campaign donations from pro-Israel state politicians, organizations and university donors who over the last year have vocally criticized Gaza protests, records show.

………

Makled said the judge had told him he was leaning toward granting an evidentiary hearing on the bias allegation, which would have opened Nessel’s office to discovery, or the requirement to turn over evidence.

“I think she didn’t want to open the can of worms that was coming her way,” Makled added.

This is important because the State AG taking over local prosecutions in this way are highly unusual, and in this case it appears to be motivated by political considerations.