Detroit Free Press

Judge bars Karamo from using GOP title

2 had claimed to be party’s chairman after Jan. 20 vote

- Paul Egan

GRAND RAPIDS — A Kent County judge on Tuesday issued a preliminar­y injunction against Kristina Karamo, barring her from identifyin­g herself as chair of the Michigan Republican Party or from accessing any party bank accounts or postal boxes.

The ruling by Judge Joseph Rossi is a huge victory for anti-Karamo forces in the Michigan GOP and for Pete Hoekstra, the former ambassador and congressma­n who was elected to replace Karamo Jan. 20 after a breakoff section of the party’s state committee voted to remove her at a meeting Jan. 6. Having two different people claiming to be MIGOP chair “created an environmen­t filled with something the law hates — uncertaint­y and confusion,” the judge said.

Karamo, who was in the courtroom in Grand Rapids for the late afternoon ruling, described it as “egregious,” but said she will abide by it, pending a possible appeal and a trial in the case that is still scheduled for June.

“I have to comply with the judge’s order,” Karamo said. “I’m not going to jail.”

The ruling may provide clarity to district chairs and potential candidates to March 2 party convention­s where the majority of the party’s delegates to the Republican National Convention will be elected. Hoekstra has scheduled a March 2 selection in Grand Rapids. Karamo had scheduled one in Detroit on the same date. Rossi made his ruling retroactiv­e to Jan. 6 and said any actions Karamo has taken since then as state party chair are “null and void.”

Hoekstra was endorsed in the dispute by the Republican National Committee and former President Donald Trump.

“The MIGOP State Committee, the RNC, President Trump and now a court of law have all reviewed the Jan. 6 meeting and there is unanimous agreement that the former chair was properly removed, and I was elected as the new chairman of the Michigan Republican Party,” Hoekstra said in a news release after the ruling. “It is time to unite and move forward.”

Unhappines­s with Karamo, who was elected at a state party convention just over a year ago, stemmed in part from lackluster fundraisin­g. Rossi made his ruling after Tuesday testimony in which officials supporting Karamo as party chair detailed their reasons why they consider her removal by a breakaway committee faction to be unlawful.

Rossi heard from Michigan Republican Party Secretary Angela Gillisse, Treasurer Jennifer Standerfer and William Hartman, the party’s general counsel under Karamo. They identified multiple issues with the way a Jan. 6 meeting to remove Karamo was convened and conducted. But Rossi said none of the flaws invalidate­d the actions taken against Karamo, which he said included “sharp-elbow tactics.”

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