Far-left Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) hopes to succeed far-left Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D). But Benson has one important advantage over Whitmer when she successfully ran for Governor in 2018: Benson counts the votes.
Now Benson is also being sued by the Michigan House after she defied a legislative subpoena for the ‘training materials’ she used to train election clerks.
Benson oversaw the contentious and disputed 2020 elections in Michigan, where massive irregularities were reported by witnesses in over a thousand affidavits in Southeast Michigan alone, and brought to the judiciary’s attention in a wide variety of cases where cowardly judges refused to consider any evidence.
Data experts have also examined the state’s absentee ballot numbers and found irregularities that can only be explained by fraud.
The Gateway Pundit has reported previously on decades-long empty fields in the state capital that have dozens of people voting from fake addresses at that location.
Yet Michigan Secretary of State militantly says that the 2020 election was the ‘safest and most secure election in history.’
The Michigan House of Representatives, which flipped back to Republican control in November 2024, has been investigating Benson’s administration of the state’s elections and one thing they noticed was that the Secretary of State’s office considered the ‘training materials’ for elections clerks to be secret.
Benson’s office has told the legislature that they will not, under any circumstances, reveal the training materials they provide to the state’s estimated 5,000 election clerks and their staffs.
The two in the Michigan House leading the charge against Benson’s efforts to cover-up the crimes in the 2020 election are House Oversight Chairman Jay DeBoyer, and Speaker Pro Tempore Rachelle Smit, both Republicans and former clerks who oversaw elections prior to their election to the legislature. Smit has also been the Vice Chair of the Elections Committee and has fought for several years for election integrity in the Wolverine state.
For months, Benson has been trying to provide a few scattered, irrelevant, documents in a ‘drip, drip, drip’ strategy of complying with the subpoena enough to avoid dealing with its substance: providing the training manuals.
This has the effect, legislators say, of not only making them suspect as to her motives in hiding this information, but also wondering what authority she intends to invoke to deny a co-equal branch of the government from turning over documents and information that is training in nature.
Last week, impeachment articles were filed by one member of the Michigan House against Jocelyn Benson, covered by TGP’s Patty McMurray.
Benson’s office claims that such materials might empower hackers and those who seek to undermine the state’s election processes. Benson cited “cybersecurity and physical security concerns” for the reason why she can’t turn over election training materials. These materials provide guidance to the state’s 83 counties, nearly 3,000 local governments, as they administer elections for the state’s 10 million citizens.
Because Benson’s office refuses to provide these training manuals, the House issued a rare ‘legislative subpoena’ in order to force her to tender the documents. Benson has simply defied the legal subpoena and is forcing the matter into court.
Now, the House has brought Benson into court to try and force her to comply with the subpoena.
But legislative experts point out that there are other options the legislature has, namely the power of the purse. The state’s annual budget has not yet been passed for next fiscal year, and experts point out that within the “General Government” budget the Secretary of State has a significant operational budget that Republicans might target for serious cuts. In particular, insiders note, the Department is afforded six full-time staffers and assistants to Benson who are paid to essentially assist with her political operations.
Those individuals, they say, are ripe for elimination as Benson continues to arrogant and dismissively thumb her nose at the authority of the legislature.
Local media has embarrassed itself by covering for Democrats and Benson by stating that she ‘allegedly’ defied a subpoena, even though there is no dispute even by Benson, that she is refusing to comply with the subpoena.
Other left-wing outlets have said this is just a ‘fight’ and that the Republicans are ‘escalating’ the fight.
Benson has said the entire episode is simply a ‘political stunt’ even though she had also previously said she would ‘welcome’ a lawsuit on the matter.
The next steps are for the case to be heard in a Michigan courtroom and the strength and power of legislative oversight on the Michigan Executive branch will be determined by a judge. Meanwhile, the Michigan House determines the annual state budget, set to be passed this summer, which also includes funding in the ‘General Government’ budget for the Secretary of State.
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