Whitmer dropped off the call before her Chief Legal Counsel Mark Totten “offered me an opportunity to resign, and I did,” Gordon testified. “I think (Totten) mentioned on the phone call that he would give me the name of an attorney who would tell me more about the possibility of an executive severance agreement.”
Republican lawmakers have blasted the resulting severance agreement as “hush money” because it included a confidentiality clause that Whitmer and Gordon later agreed to waive amid scrutiny.
Committee Chair Steven Johnson, R-Wayland, said Thursday he thinks the agreement is illegal because a provision in the Michigan Constitution prohibits “extra compensation to any public officer, agent or contractor after the service has been rendered.”