Jocelyn Benson’s husband is VP of company forcing data center on Saline Township

Joce­lyn Ben­son’s hus­band, Ryan Friedrichs (of course she reject­ed his last name) is the vice pres­i­dent for bil­lion­aire Stephen Ross’ Relat­ed Com­pa­nies, the com­pa­ny behind the giant data cen­ter being forced on the peo­ple of Saline against their wish­es.

Friedrichs has also served as Relat­ed Com­pa­nies’ reg­is­tered lob­by­ist in Lans­ing.

Via The Mid­west­ern­er:

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s admin­is­tra­tion is fast-track­ing approvals for a mas­sive AI dat­a­cen­ter in Saline Town­ship.

Locals oppose the project, but few are more excit­ed about it than Sec­re­tary of State Joce­lyn Benson’s hus­band, Ryan Friedrichs.

Friedrichs, vice pres­i­dent for bil­lion­aire Stephen Ross’ Relat­ed Com­pa­nies, cel­e­brat­ed the project on LinkedIn.

The arti­cle also notes that Friedrichs has ties to shady polit­i­cal busi­ness deals in Detroit:

 Friedrichs was among sev­er­al for­mer Detroit city offi­cials named in a 2019 law­suit that alleged Friedrichs helped cook the books for Detroit’s Motor City Match Pro­gram and played a role in a sep­a­rate scan­dal involv­ing the city’s Make Your Date pre­na­tal health pro­gram. […]

A report from the U.S. Depart­ment of Hous­ing and Urban Devel­op­ment con­firmed com­po­nents of Detroit’s Motor City Match grant appli­ca­tions vio­lat­ed fed­er­al reg­u­la­tions, and Detroit’s inspec­tor gen­er­al con­firmed Friedrichs was among city offi­cials who abused their author­i­ty by forc­ing employ­ees to delete emails relat­ed to Make Your Date.

Read the full sto­ry at The Mid­west­ern­er.