Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) is at the center of a brewing political storm in Detroit that involves his jail-bound wife, a predicament that some insiders think has left him more vulnerable to challenge than ever before.
Late last month, former Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in connection with a city sludge-hauling scandal. After her plea, the former councilwoman’s onetime chief of staff, Sam Riddle, told a Detroit newspaper that Monica Conyers had previously helped get him a consulting job with Detroit businessman Dimitrios Papas and then proceeded to demand half of Riddle’s $20,000 fee.
Riddle also said John Conyers signed a July 2007 letter to the Environmental Protection Agency in support of Papas’s efforts to restart a waste injection well in the city of Romulus — and that Monica Conyers personally approved the letter.
As a result, critics are demanding an explanation from John Conyers, who is described in news accounts as publicly opposed to the toxic well site prior to 2007.
“Rep. John Conyers (D-Detroit) needs to join the long line of Detroit pols who’ve apparently sat down recently with the U.S. attorney in Detroit,” the Detroit Free Press wrote in an editorial.
- Politico Story
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