Emails: Schuette asked staffers to talk 'presidential politics' on state time

Paul Egan | Detroit Free Press

LANSING – Attorney General Bill Schuette asked more than a dozen state employees to join him on a 2015 weekday conference call to discuss “presidential politics,” and offered state employees financial incentives to secure endorsements for then-presidential candidate Jeb Bush, according to emails obtained by the Free Press.

The email about the conference call and two other emails asking state employees to perform political work surfaced Tuesday amid several earlier allegations that Schuette used state employees to perform political or personal work on state time.

The emails were sent and received on personal email accounts — not state government ones — but one was sent by Schuette's state scheduler during office hours on a Monday morning. That email scheduled a conference call during state office hours for 3:30 that afternoon.

Two other emails were sent by Schuette after work hours, but urged state employees to meet political endorsement target deadlines by close of business on work weekdays. State offices close at 5 p.m.

Schuette is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for governor in next Tuesday's primary. Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, who is also seeking the Republican nomination, has aggressively attacked Schuette over allegations and revelations the attorney general has improperly used state employees and resources for partisan political work and to help complete personal real estate transactions.

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Schuette, attorney general since 2011, chaired the Michigan presidential campaign of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush until Donald Trump won the Republican presidential endorsement. Schuette then became a strong Trump supporter and is endorsed by Trump in the Michigan governor's race.

On Monday, Aug. 17, 2015, at 10:19 a.m., Schuette's then-scheduler, Esther Jentzen, sent an email to the personal email accounts of more than a dozen Schuette employees, including then-constituent relations representative Scott Greenlee, and Wendy Anderson, supervisor of Schuette's constituent relations representatives.

"Bill would like you all to join for a 3:30 p.m. phone call today, August 17th, to discuss presidential politics," wrote Jentzen, who used her personal email account but included her state email signature and state office phone number beneath the call-in information.

Also copied on the email: Carol Isaacs, who was then Schuette's chief deputy and has since retired; Matthew Schneider, who was then Schuette's chief legal counsel and is now the U.S. Attorney in Detroit; Dennis Starner, Schuette's state driver; Carter Bundy, who was then Schuette's political director and is now on leave to work on Schuette's campaign for governor; Graham Filler, an assistant attorney general; Sharon Lollio, Schuette's deputy director of legislative relations, Alan Cropsey, director of legislative relations; Rusty Hills, director of public affairs; Andrea Bitely, Schuette's press secretary; Sonny Gast, then a Schuette communications representative; Lori Gay, Schuette's executive assistant; and John Sellek, Schuette's director of public relations, who is now on leave to work on Schuette's gubernatorial campaign.

Sellek, who is Schuette's campaign spokesman, directed questions about the emails to Bitely.

Bitely said: "This is yet another example of people trying to hurt Bill because of the ongoing governor’s race."

"Obviously, non-state resources were used for this effort," Bitely said in an email. "Presidential elections are special opportunities for anyone interested in politics to get involved, and given the results, these efforts didn’t seem to pan out — Bush got clobbered."

Jentzen, who left Schuette's office in 2016, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Greenlee, who left Schuette's office in 2016 and is now a self-employed consultant, said Tuesday he doesn't recall the specific email, but believes that if Schuette scheduled a presidential politics conference call during state office hours, it would have been to remind state employees not to do any political work on state time.

"He was always very strict about that," Greenlee said of Schuette.

But several nonemployees were also included on the August 2015 email as invited to the conference call on presidential politics, including Stanley Grot and Shannon Price. Both had served as Schuette constituency relations representatives but had left Schuette's office by August 2015, records show.

On Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015, Schuette used his personal email account to send an after-hours email to the personal accounts of a smaller group of employees, including Bundy, Hills, Sellek, Jentzen, Anderson, Filler, Price, Greenlee, Gast and Starner.

The email, titled "Team Jeb," said: "We are at 61 endorsements. Doing great. Let's hit 100 by Friday COB. Who gets the gift certificate this week by winning the Jeb challenge?"

Schuette followed up on Sunday, Sept. 6, 2015, with another email, titled "Jeb 2016 update," addressed to a similar group of state employees, as well as some outside political consultants and supporters.

"Hi. Great job everybody," Schuette wrote. "We are at 126!!!"

Schuette advised that Grot, who had left Schuette's office in 2012 to become Shelby Township clerk and is now a Republican candidate for secretary of state, had "won the first Jeb challenge incentive (by) obtaining over 40 endorsements," and had won a $100 gift certificate for his choice of either Troppo restaurant in Lansing or the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.

Schuette said the "goal is to build our Jeb grassroots leadership team to 200 total." He said that goal was "within reach," and encouraged the state employees and others to "reach higher as Dantonio says" — a reference to MSU football coach Mark Dantonio.

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The attorney general then detailed prizes for the next "Jeb 2016 incentive challenge," which he said would start that day and continue until close of business on Wednesday, Sept. 16. The person getting the most new endorsements would win a $250 gift certificate, while second place would be worth $100 and third place $50, the email said.

"So have fun, be persuasive and thanks so much for all your help and commitment," the email said.

Neither Bitely nor Sellek responded to questions about how the gift cards were paid for.

Greenlee said he wouldn't assume "close of business" on a weekday would mean 5 p.m., in the context Schuette was using the term.

"I would say close of business ... would be 11:59 p.m.," he said.

Bitely had a similar view.

"After working for Bill for nearly four years, I can tell you this: Close of business doesn’t mean 5 p.m. to Bill," she said. "Close of business to him would be 8 or 10 p.m., maybe not even until midnight."

Stu Sandler, a spokesman for a pro-Schuette super political action committee, said Schuette and Calley are not being held to the same standard. He noted Calley held a campaign news conference during state office hours in Lansing on July 24 and that Calley's state assistant, Laura Biehl, organized and attended the event.

Biehl was using vacation time, said Calley campaign spokesman Michael Schrimpf.

Calley said at the event he puts in more than 40 hours a week as lieutenant governor, even when he is campaigning. Both Calley and Schuette are spending much of this week travelling the state and campaigning.

Sandler countered that Calley also traveled back and forth to Boston to earn a master's degree from Harvard while serving as lieutenant governor. And Calley, who used the July 24 news conference to attack Schuette over how many appointments appeared on his daily calendar, which Calley obtained under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act, has refused to release his own daily calendar, which is not subject to FOIA, Sandler said.

"Why is Calley hiding behind FOIA?" asked Sandler, who accused Calley of both hypocrisy and "working with Democrats to undercut conservative Republicans."

The Free Press reported in December that Schuette loaded his taxpayer-funded office payroll with Republican campaign activists in the run-up to his 2018 campaign for governor.

Under the state constitution and civil service rules, state workers are supposed to be hired without considering their political ties, but a Free Press investigation found those hired as "constituent relations representatives" all had records as Republican activists and/or campaign workers.

In May, Calley accused Schuette of continuing to have a hands-on role in his business dealings after saying publicly he placed his assets in a blind trust. Calley's campaign released records showing Schuette's signature on multimillion-dollar real estate transactions related to family-owned property in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Schuette vigorously denied that his family real estate should have been placed in a blind trust but his officials acknowledged that state staffers signed as witnesses or notaries to some of the transactions while at work.

Calley's campaign issued a statement Tuesday that said the emails show Schuette is in "serious legal jeopardy for misuse of his office in advancement of his political ambition," and "his nomination would put Republicans at risk up and down the ballot."

Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Brandon Dillon said the emails are "a smoking gun" showing Schuette uses his state office as "a personal political and real estate shop."

Schuette won a victory Tuesday in the Michigan Court of Claims, where Hugh Madden of Progress Michigan filed a May lawsuit alleging Schuette has improperly used his office to campaign for governor.

Judge Christoper Murray ordered a halt to discovery and blocked subpoenas issued to current and former employees and others, seeking emails and other records.

Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Dalzell said in a court filing that some of the 37 subpoenas were sent to people who never even worked for the Attorney General's Office. The subpoenas, which gave deadlines for response of this Thursday, are harassing and overly broad, Dalzell said. They shouldn't be allowed before the court rules on Schuette's motion to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds of governmental immunity, she said.

In a response Tuesday before Murray issued his order, attorney Mark Brewer, a former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party who represents Madden, said the subpoenaed records are needed to show Schuette operates "a political machine whose goal is to elect and re-elect a public officeholder."

On July 23, former Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, a Democrat, asked the Ingham County Circuit Court to appoint a one-person grand jury to investigate the allegations related to Schuette.

Ingham County Chief Judge Richard Garcia said Tuesday that no decision had been made on that request and he could not say when a decision would be made.

State Sen. Patrick Colbeck of Canton and Dr. Jim Hines, a Saginaw-area physician, are also seeking the Republican nomination for governor.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.