My Role in Fighting Corruption

UPDATE - SEE MY PRESENTATION TO THE BOARD ON MY UNDERCOVER INVOLVEMENT FOR THE FBI INVESTIGATION HERE -

As a witness in the massive probe, I cannot elaborate on my work with federal investigators other than to say my involvement was VOLUNTARY and spanned YEARS beginning just PRIOR to my taking office in 2008. For now, read this quote from the Detroit Free Press 5/30/17:

“In a rare move, the U.S. Attorney's Office revealed the whistleblower in the Federal corruption case – ‘The United States Attorney's Office and the FBI wish to acknowledge the extraordinary assistance of Washington Township Supervisor Daniel O'Leary, who brought the criminal conduct to the attention of federal law enforcement and has been a valuable asset to the investigation since its inception.’”

My unwillingness to conform to the Macomb County cronyism culture has caused attacks on my reputation by those who felt I was “in the way”. A developer crony of a politician was sent to me by the politician to warn me long before the 2016 election “We’re gonna take you out. We will isolate you. You won’t have a reputation when we are done with you. We will throw every dime we have against you. When we are done, no one will have anything to do with you.“

Another Macomb County power player was asked by a mutual friend why I was under attack. He confided that "O'Leary is in the way. He is bad for business. They (the County politician and his developer friend) feel there is a lot of money to be made in Washington and he is in the way. If we don't take him out in the election, we will get him out some other way."

A township supervisor in a neighboring community confided "You have pissed off the two most powerful people in the County. The word has gone out that NONE of us (politicians) are to have anything to do with you unless we want to go down too. Even your friends are gonna turn on you to win their favor, but not me bud. Just lay low and you will make it out okay."

The two men joined forces with others in the community who had an interest in knocking me out of office. This included those committed to the cronyism culture, those who wanted Washington to continue to subsidize services for neighboring towns, those with political ambition, and those with political or personal vendettas.

They attacked me, my sons and their girlfriends, my ex-wife, board members and employees and even a charity I was associated with. They attacked Washington Township itself. Their lies did have an impact. Eventually, I was defeated.

Despite all of this, I would not change a thing about my involvement in fighting the deeply-entrenched culture of corruption that continues to plague Macomb County.