- Anné and Rob Minard will avoid jail time after taking guilty pleas and agreeing to cooperate with state prosecutors
- The couple was charged with siphoning more than $600,000 from Chatfield-linked political fundraising accounts
- They are expected to play a major role in former House Speaker Lee Chatfield’s trial in fall 2026
LANSING — Two of former House Speaker Lee Chatfield’s top legislative aides, Anné and Rob Minard, have been sentenced to probation after agreeing to testify against their former boss in his corruption case next year.
The two had been charged as part of a corruption probe that also ensnared Chatfield and his wife, as the four allegedly tapped into the millions of dollars they raised while Chatfield led the Michigan House to fund a lavish lifestyle.
“Conduct like this without question erodes the public’s confidence in our politics and politicians,” Ingham County Circuit Court Judge James Jamo said Wednesday in a sentencing hearing.
But both Minards received no jail time and will instead face a six-month suspended prison sentence, three years of probation and must pay the state roughly $37,000 in back taxes and penalties.
Jamo said he didn’t like suspended sentences, which generally allow offenders to avoid jail time if they do not commit additional crimes, but agreed to the plea agreements nonetheless.
“I suppose there are some that may say that seems like quite a deal given the scope of the crimes that were committed here,” Jamo said.
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Anné Minard pleaded guilty in October to two crimes: filing a fraudulent income tax return and embezzling less than $20,000 from a nonprofit.
Two weeks later, Rob Minard pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return and stealing between $20,000 and $50,000 from Chatfield-linked fundraising accounts.
They had each faced more than a dozen charges before taking plea deals, stemming from allegations that they either stole or misused more than $600,000 from a series of Chatfield-linked political fundraising accounts.
Chatfield, a Levering Republican, and his wife are also facing a slew of corruption-related charges over alleged misuse of political, nonprofit and taxpayer funds while he led the Michigan House in 2019 and 2020.
The former lawmaker could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He and his wife have both also pleaded not guilty, but aren’t slated to stand trial until September 2026.
Rob Minard’s attorney Robert Harrison said the charges and ensuing plea deal had taken a “personal toll” that has already affected his client’s “employment situation, his financial situation, his reputation.”
The crimes
Investigators say the Minards stole more than $600,000 in total from Chatfield’s political accounts, including to pay for personal expenses such as Gucci handbags and services at a plastic surgeon. In a preliminary exam for the couple, a forensic accountant alleged the Minards used five different methods to illicitly siphon money from the accounts they controlled.
In one instance, prosecutors alleged Anne Minard paid off credit card expenses that were “obviously personal in nature” totaling more than $14,000 using cash from the Peninsula Fund, a nonprofit account that isn’t required to detail its donors or expenses.
Had their case gone to trial, prosecutors from Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office indicated in court filings they might call a host of significant Lansing politicians, lobbyists and political operatives to provide testimony. The list included former and current legislators, lobbyists and friends of the Minards.
There will be no restitution paid to the organizations the Minards controlled and embezzled because the “organizations are now defunct,” according to Assistant Attorney General Kahla Crino, but “this is not a victimless crime.”
“The money the Minards stole in this matter did not simply grow on trees,” Crino said, and added the decision to steal money from the accounts “was something that was harmful to the democratic process” by betraying the donors to the funds.
To describe their crimes, “political-related corruption might not be too strong a word” Jamo said.
A broken relationship
The plea deals marked a schism between two couples who had grown close as their influence grew alongside Chatfield’s political rise.
“I would not be where I am without you and I would not be who I am without you,” Lee Chatfield said of Anné and Rob Minard during his farewell speech from the House floor in 2020.
Five years later, the Minards have agreed to cooperate with state prosecutors in the investigation against their one-time friend.
Mary Chartier, Lee Chatfield’s attorney, has criticized the plea deals, saying they show how far Nessel is “willing to go to try and convict Mr. Chatfield,” calling her a “political rival.”
“Her motivation is clear, and we look forward to exposing that — and a great deal more ― at trial, including during Mr. Minard’s extensive cross-examination,” Chartier said last month.
The Minards had partnered with Lee Chatfield, since his earliest days in the legislature, working as consultants during his first campaign for the Michigan House in 2014, and Rob Minard worked as staff for Chatfield during his first term.
From 2015 through 2020 the Minards’ political consulting firm Victor Strategies was paid nearly $1.1 million by Republican legislators’ campaigns and the PACs connected to them, according to campaign finance records — at times for vaguely-described services or at apparently exorbitant rates — all while also taking a legislative salary.
By the time Chatfield began serving as House Speaker in 2019, Anné Minard was serving as the House Republican Caucus’ director of external affairs and Rob Minard was the caucus chief of staff, some of the highest-paid positions in the legislature.
Through Victor Strategies they oversaw Chatfield’s campaign accounts, his four leadership political action committees, and two nonprofit “dark money” accounts, Peninsula Fund and Lift Up Michigan.
After the sentencing, Robert Minard was asked if Lee Chatfield was no longer a friend. He shook his head.
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