On Tuesday, the Michigan Secretary of State’s office released more election-training documents in response to the deadline of a subpoena issued by State Rep. Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay Township). Despite branding this as an act of transparency, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has continued to block the release of the full materials she is required to produce per DeBoyer’s subpoena.

“Jocelyn Benson’s shameless, two-faced behavior that has characterized her entire time in office is now reaching levels of absurdity I didn’t think possible,” DeBoyer said. “She touts her commitment to government transparency while making every effort to conceal her actions from the public. Her record on transparency is making it harder to see campaign finance records, making it impossible for elected officials to report their financial disclosures, and now, refusing to hand over election training materials she is lawfully required to disclose. Benson’s tenure as our Secretary of State has been the antithesis of transparency.”

The materials that the Secretary of State was subpoenaed for are election training materials originally requested by the House Election Integrity Committee Chair, State Rep. Rachelle Smit (R-Martin). Both Smit and DeBoyer are former clerks, meaning they would have had access to this requested information only a few years ago before they were elected legislators.

Despite this, Benson has refused Smit’s request and now defied DeBoyer’s subpoena, claiming it would jeopardize sensitive information. Michigan law gives clear statutory authority to the Legislature to issue subpoenas on matters before one of their committees, also providing that anyone who “fails on demand to produce any papers, books or documents” may be found to be in contempt of the Legislature.

“Benson’s disrespect towards the Legislature’s involvement in the governing process is unbecoming of any governing official, but especially one who wants to be governor,” DeBoyer said. “She does not regard herself as accountable to anyone, whether that be the people of Michigan or their elected representatives. Her flagrant defiance of our clear-cut legal prerogative is only the most recent example of this.”