A Michigan prosecutor has suggested that Government Gretchen Whitmer may face criminal charges over her handling of deaths in nursing homes in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, while the Attorney General has begun an investigation into the deaths.
The news comes when Republicans in the Michigan legislature said they would hold hearings in a $ 155,000 confidential separation agreement made to former health department director Robert Gordon amid accusations that it was a ‘ silent payment ‘can be.
Macomb County prosecutor Peter Lucido said he could not get information on the deaths at nursing homes and long-term care facilities due to strict laws protecting the information about patients’ health care.
‘If we find out that there is an intentional neglect of office, and if we find out that there was a reckless danger to someone’s life by bringing them in, then we would continue with charges against the Governor. Of course we would. “No one is higher than the law in this state,” Lucido told ABC 7 WXYZ on Monday.
The questions surrounding Whitmer about the deaths in the nursing home are similar to the scandal swirling around the New York government, Andrew Cuomo, who even before his growing scandal for sexual harassment called for him to retire or be sued.
The harassed governor is also plagued by accusations from five women that he sexually harassed them by touching or kissing them improperly, and by commenting improperly on them.
Whitmer said in an interview with CNN on Sunday that she supports an independent inquiry into her fellow Democratic governor.
‘I think the allegations are very serious and should be taken seriously. And I do think that an impartial, thorough, independent investigation is deserving and appropriate, ‘she said of’ State of the Union ‘.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel will investigate the policy for coronavirus nursing homes in the state, according to ClickonDetroit.com.
Whitmer’s office blasted Lucido in a statement to WXYZ, calling his comments “disgraceful political attacks based on no fact or reality.”
The statement also states that Lucido’s Republican colleagues confirmed that they “saw no evidence or testimony that says a nursing home was forced to take someone against their will.”
According to her office, the state “has given priority to testing” nursing home staff and residents “to save lives.”
‘Early in the pandemic, the state acted quickly to create a network of local hubs with isolation units and sufficient PBT to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within a facility. In addition, we offered 100 percent of the residents of nursing homes priority access to the vaccine. The former head of AARP, as well as an independent UM study, praised our work to save lives in old age homes, ”reads the statement.
Michigan House Speaker Steve Johnson, a Republican, said he wanted answers from Whitmer about the deaths in the nursing home and the payment to the former director of health.
“We have invited the department to testify before our oversight committee. They refused to do so. We asked them to share with us the information on deaths in the nursing home. T refuse it. “And now we see that the governor paid the former director of the health department, Robert Gordon, $ 155,000 to keep quiet, which begs the question: what are they trying to hide,” he told Fox News.
He said Michigan was one of the states that “forced COVID patients” into nursing homes, “just as you saw in New York, Cuomo’s government. “
“It happened here, and they showed the numbers in New York and deaths in nursing homes, and that’s the question here, whether they’re hiding the numbers,” Johnson said.
Whitmer denied that Gordon, who resigned in January, had received a payment to remain silent.
‘I’m really bubbling over the characterization. This is the nature of a severance agreement when someone leaves a leadership position … that there are conditions to it and that you cannot share it every term. “It’s simply what it is,” Whitmer told reporters at a news conference earlier this month, the Detroit Free Press reported.
But she did not want to talk about why Gordon resigned or why taxpayers’ money is being used for a divorce agreement that remains confidential.
J ohnson said he has the same questions.
‘This is not something that is common, and not something we have seen here in the state government. “If it is so common, why were they not open to the public about it,” he said.
Whitmer’s office did not immediately respond to a request from The Post for comment on the nursing homes and the severance pay.