House Holds Benson In Contempt; She Says She'll Meet Them In Court

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 05/22/2025) The House voted on Thursday to hold Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in civil contempt for declining to fully comply with previous subpoenas asking for election training documents. HR 117 was adopted by a partyline vote, 58-47.

House Oversight Committee Chair Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay) and House Elections Integrity Committee Chair Rachelle Smit (R-Shelbyville) have asked for the documents numerous times since last November, but Benson's office has argued that the House has yet to show how releasing the guidelines advance a “legitimate legislative purpose.”

The duo sent a final letter to the Secretary of State (SOS) requesting compliance with the subpoenas and for Benson to meet with the two lawmakers in person to discuss the department's objections. Thursday’s now-expired 11 a.m. deadline was met with a letter from the Department of Attorney General on behalf of the SOS that said they are open to meeting, but it restated objections to releasing election training materials.

DeBoyer said at a press conference Thursday that if the SOS is “thumbing her nose” at legislators trying to determine the lawfulness of her election administration, then the House of Representatives as a whole will make a request to hold the SOS in contempt. The House Republicans' lawyers have been directed to “take steps necessary and proper to ensure compliance with the House's subpoenas, including the initiation of legal action.”

The letter from the AG this morning said they are open to discussions and hope that a “mutually agreeable resolution of the parties' concerns may be reached.” For now, though, the SOS is sticking to the objections.

SOS spokesperson Angela Benander said the department sent a letter to the House Republicans in which department officials agreed to meet, but “it sounds like they didn't see it or ignored it.”

The letter also suggested involving an independent third-party mediator to address confidentiality concerns with the election materials. Benson's legal team notes that they have given the committee 3,000 pages of material on a rolling basis and will continue to do so. However, they also note that any information subpoenaed for must have some “legitimate legislative purpose” and must be “relevant to that purpose.”

“The Committee has met neither requirement here,” reads the letter from SOS's Civil Rights and Elections Chief Heather S. Meingast.

“While the Committee’s letter paints the Secretary as a willful obstructionist impeding its constitutional duty, DOS has responded to every request for information from the Election Integrity Committee and the Oversight Committee and provided responsive materials, including training materials in the eLearning Portal,” she wrote.

If holding Benson in contempt is not effective, since resolutions are not legally binding, DeBoyer said “every legal tool that lays on the table” will be used. He said litigation “is a strong possibility.”

In a press conference later in the day, Benson said she'll meet them in court if that's where this leads.

“If Chairman DeBoyer and the House Republicans want to go to court over this, we will see them in court,” Benson said.

Benson said adopting this resolution is governance rooted in bullying.

"You cannot bully me or abuse your authority to get access to information that, if it ends up in the wrong hands, could be used to interfere with the chain of custody of ballots, tamper with election equipment or impersonate a clerk on election day. I have a sworn duty to protect that information,” Benson said.

Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) said in a press conference on Thursday that since the conflict between DeBoyer and Benson started, it's all been about the weaponization of government. He said everyone wants to see secure elections, but it needs to be done the right way.

Minority Floor Leader John Fitzgerald (D-Wyoming) said this has been two days in a row of resolutions adopted in the House to point the finger at another government entity like the Senate or Secretary of State.

On the floor, Fitzgerald called for a point of order, stating that a resolution does not need to adopt a resolution to initiate legal action, let alone call for a record roll call vote.

“It is intentionally divisive, and I think we did a great job today as a caucus for a resolution that got dropped in our laps two minutes before session,” Fitzgerald said.

Minority Whip Jennifer Conlin (D-Ann Arbor), who sits on the House Oversight Committee, said when House Republicans are asked why they need to see election training materials, they can't give an answer, and despite thousands of documents already being made public as a response to document requests and a subpoena, the House Republicans' requests are not clear.

“How to make them happy is beyond evident. It's a fishing expedition,” Conlin said.

The letter sent to DeBoyer and Smit this morning made the same point, stating the materials are frequently written for clerks that aren’t starting from a blank slate of understanding.

“The generalized nature of the request for training materials on every available topic suggests either that the committee has not yet arrived at a particular legislative purpose or is simply requesting documents for the sake of doing so – but neither scenario provides a sufficient basis for the committee to exercise its subpoena authority,” the letter said.

Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou (D-East Lansing), last term's House Elections Committee chair, said the SOS has made progress toward fulfilling the request and what has been left out is because they would make election security vulnerable.

“We heard the term political theater, and that's exactly what this is, and you're probably going to keep hearing about it. And I don't think this is the last time we'll hear it, and it just comes up over and over again because it makes good drama,” Tsernoglou said.

Tsernoglou suggested that the House Republicans that want more from SOS set out a timeline instead of demanding everything be done by a specific date, or even asking what timeline would work.

The letter says only one SOS employee has the security clearance required to download information from the portal so that it can be compiled to respond to the subpoena, and it was clear about not being able to meet the May 13 deadline.

It also says that preparing documents for review is a slow process and only about 50 percent of the training material has been downloaded and prepared.

One House Democrat smells politics. Benson is the presumed Democratic frontrunner for the gubernatorial nomination.

“I feel like it's pretty simple. She's running for an office. You all have not gotten any explanation as to why we're doing this, besides to lift her up negatively in the press. That's all I have to say,” said Rep. Stephanie A. Young (D-Detroit).

Smit testified in the House Oversight Committee on March 11 and DeBoyer sent a follow-up documents request to the SOS on March 12. The SOS responded on March 19, stating that documents are shared on a “need to know” basis.

DeBoyer issued the subpoena on April 22 with a 4 p.m. May 13 deadline. MDOS responded with over 1,900 pages of documents on May 2.

Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton) said when it comes to election integrity, it’s impossible to measure if overseers don’t understand how administrators were trained.

“What is behind the cloak of secrecy in the e-Learning center?” Bollin said, adding that it leads her to believe that there is something unlawful in the e-Learning center and that improper directives have been provided to clerks.

When asked if there has been a whistleblower that has raised concerns about what the training center holds, Bollin said she’s had local clerks come to her since the 2020 election who were concerned about how election administration directives changed due to COVID-19 and more.

If there are allegations of breaking the law, the letter says they do not serve as a valid legislative purpose since that investigative authority is vested in the executive branch, not the legislature.

Additionally, the letter says a disregard for confidentiality is inconsistent with laws passed by the Legislature that dictate that the qualified voter file is not easily accessible on purpose, and some election training materials describe how to access QVF or give insight into its architecture and functionality.

“There is no ‘smoking gun’ so to speak, but rather dispersed pieces of information from which additional understanding of the system and its digital architecture be gleaned,” the letter says.