LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's acknowledgement of drinking to the point of feeling ill and needing help to leave an Oct. 30 college football game came Wednesday, two days after a conservative group requested government records about the incident.
Michigan Rising Action filed Freedom of Information Act requests with Michigan State University and the East Lansing Police Department on Monday, according to documents.
The police department filing sought an incident report or "any request for medical assistance" involving Nessel at Spartan Stadium on Oct. 30. The other request sought emails about Nessel by university police officials. Nessel is a Democrat and the state's top law enforcement officer.
Eric Ventimiglia, executive director of Michigan Rising Action, said his group had been approached by someone who indicated Nessel was "heavily intoxicated," "behaving erratically" and "requiring a wheelchair to exit the stadium," among other allegations.
"Like all rumors, we worked to verify the information and identified the agencies most likely to have such records," Ventimiglia said.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday evening, Nessel apologized for the incident, which occurred at the Oct. 30 football game between Michigan State University and the University of Michigan, both of whom were undefeated at the time. The attorney general graduated from the University of Michigan.
"Everything in that post was accurate and that was the extent of it," said Kimberly Bush, Nessel's campaign spokeswoman. "She did not seek or receive medical care."
Bush didn't respond directly to a question about whether the document requests played a role in Nessel's Wednesday apology. Nessel had consumed drinks, including two Bloody Marys, at a tailgate gathering and then started to feel ill during the game, the attorney general said in her Facebook post.
"I laid low for a while, but my friends recommended that I leave so as to prevent me from vomiting on any of my constituents (polling consistently shows 'Roman showers' to be unpopular among most demographics)," Nessel wrote on Facebook.
"I had a few folks help me up the stairs and someone grabbed a wheelchair so as to prevent me from stumbling in the parking lot," she added. "Like all smart people attending festivities where drinking occurs, I had a designated driver. I went home, fell asleep on the couch, and my wife threw some blankets on me and provided me with some water and Tylenol for what she knew would be a skull-crushing hangover the next day."
She referred to the incident as "tailgate-gate."
Nessel's post included a photo of her inside Spartan Stadium, slouching in her chair with a University of Michigan hat covering her eyes. It's unclear when she left the game, which UM was winning at the end of the third quarter. Ultimately, the Spartans were victorious.
The attorney general was receiving positive and negative feedback about her Facebook revelation. The GOP outrage over the situation was "ridiculous," said Josh Venable, a former Michigan Republican Party operative.
"We have legitimate issues to address/debate but the AG’s game day consumption of bloodies isn’t one of them," Venable tweeted.
But Gustavo Portela, current communications director for the Michigan Republican Party, said the pictures surfacing of the state’s top law enforcement officer were "disturbing and embarrassing."
Nessel's Facebook post made a lot of sense from a public relations standpoint, said Matt Friedman, co-founder of the firm Tanner Friedman and a longtime Michigan-based communications adviser.
"There was going to be imminent news coverage," Friedman said. "It’s almost always a good idea to try to get in front of what could be negative or controversial news content with your own message."
It's debatable how well Nessel executed the strategy with her post, added Friedman, a former journalist who has been advising people in public relations for 23 years.
The attorney general's Twitter account posted on Oct. 30 a photo of Nessel with Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser, a UM regent, and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, apparently at a tailgate gathering.
"On #RivalryDay we aren’t Republicans or Democrats — just Spartans and Wolverines. 2 of the best universities in America," Nessel's tweet said. "Both gave it their all today."
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