Public to Foot Conyers' Tab

This much is known: Monica Conyers now has a court-appointed appellate lawyer, paid for by taxpayers’ dollars.

The question remains: How could she be married to U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. — one of the longest tenured members of Congress – and unable to afford counsel?

“That’s a good question,” Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning said Monday. “It could be that their assets are separate, even though they are married.”

John Conyers, who did not attend his wife’s sentencing in the federal courthouse in Detroit last Wednesday — though he was upstairs in his office in the same building — made a $174,000 salary last year. A spokeswoman at his office declined to comment Monday.

Monica Conyers’ new lawyer, Douglas Mullkoff of Ann Arbor, also declined to comment Monday. He’s representing the former Detroit city councilwoman in her appeal of a 37-month prison sentence she received for her bribery conspiracy guilty plea.

Bill Ballenger, publisher of Inside Michigan Politics, said the situation is definitely curious.

“If John Conyers jumped in himself and said, ‘Oh my God, we have to appeal this and I’ll pay for an attorney,’ that probably would cause him a lot more problems personally and politically than what’s going on now,” Ballenger said. “The idea that he is unwilling to help her, or she doesn’t have any access to his money, is probably good for John Conyers.

Read more: (Ben Schmitt, “Public to Foot Conyers’ Tab,” WCHB-TV, 3/16/2010)