LANSING, Mich. — FBI agents and a federal grand jury have spent more than two years investigating whether former Michigan House Speaker Rick Johnson and others received bribes in return for awarding state licenses to operate medical marijuana facilities, The Detroit News has learned.
The probe has the potential to raise new questions about financial influences over Lansing, the state's ethics policies while the GOP controlled the Legislature and how Michigan's burgeoning marijuana industry was shaped.
Three sources familiar with the probe described a prolonged, ongoing investigation involving Johnson's nearly two years of tenure as chairman of the Medical Marihuana Licensing Board. The sources declined to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak about the secret federal investigation.
