Some leaders of the fractured Michigan Republican Party are trying to get out of paying back a half-million dollar loan to a bank.
That effort comes as factions of the party are engaged in a bitter, internecine battle over who leads the party.
A vote to elect a new chairperson will be held this coming weekend by one faction. But Kristina Karamo, who was elected chair last year and says she is still the chair, claims the upcoming election is illegitimate.
Attorneys for the Karamo administration have sued Comerica Bank, along with the Michigan Republican Party Trust, which holds the property rights for the party's former headquarters.
The lawsuit seeks a judgment that the trust isn't the actual owner of the building, the party is.
It also seeks to call Comerica's 2022 loan of $500,000 into question. The lawsuit claims the loan doesn't have to be repaid, because of technicalities like missing signatures on some documents.
Comerica Bank previously notified the Michigan Republican Party it was in default of the loan, after missing three consecutive monthly payments.
In a letter to party officials, Comerica Bank says the total amount now owed, including interest and fees, is $520,379.57.
Lawyers for Comerica Bank say they should be dismissed as a party to the lawsuit because the Republican party's attempt to acquire the right to sell the headquarters is a separate issue from the party's default on its loan.
They say the lawsuit contains "contradictory, befuddling, and factually unsupported allegations" regarding the legitimacy of the loan.
