DETROIT – The drama over Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration and its ties to the Mike Your Date nonprofit isn’t over.
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office executed a search warrant Friday at the Detroit Public Safety Headquarters. Sources confirm the search was of the IT department and connected to the Make Your Date investigation.
Detroit officials opened an investigation into Mayor Mike Duggan and the city’s interactions with the Make Your Date nonprofit organization in April.
Make Your Date was run by a doctor with close ties to Duggan through Wayne State University. The organization aimed to reduce preterm birth rates in the city. A report from the Inspector General found that Make Your Date’s ties to Duggan didn’t break any rules, and there was no abuse of power. However, it did find that top Duggan appointees deleted emails about Make Your Date.
In October, the mayor’s chief of staff was accused of ordering employees to delete emails related to the investigation into the city’s support of the nonprofit. Officials were investigating the decision-making process that led to the city’s support of the program and if Duggan had a conflict of interest that played a role in that decision.
READ: Detroit mayor’s office told employees to delete emails related to investigation, OIG says
“We partnered with Wayne State University, America’s foremost preterm birth research institution on a Make Your Date program that resulted in a 37% reduction in preterm births earlier than 32 weeks,” Duggan said. “Thousands of at-risk pregnant women benefited from this effort and delivered healthy babies. The success of the program speaks for itself.”
The Office of Inspector General found Alexis Wiley, the mayor’s chief of staff, ordered certain employees in the Office of Development and Grants to delete emails related to Make Your Date.
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