Mike Duggan pushes back against report he outed FBI informant amid city hall investigation

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is pushing back against suggestions he knowingly leaked the name of a confidential FBI source to other people after a councilman alerted him to a Detroit City Hall public corruption investigation.

Duggan on Tuesday said he has "never disclosed" the identity of anyone he knew to be a confidential source in the ongoing federal investigation into Detroit's towing operations, the city police department and other matters, known as "Operation Northern Hook."  Duggan spoke in response to a Detroit News news report published Tuesday linking him to the investigation.

Duggan said that after then-Councilman Andre Spivey told him in spring 2021 that he had accepted money from a tow operator, the mayor informed the city's law department and Detroit Police Department. Both departments "had active investigations and litigations with this tower and we needed to make sure that this individual would not be able to continue doing business," Duggan said at a news conference Tuesday at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island.

Spivey was sentenced to two years in prison in January for taking bribes as a public official.

"Andre Spivey never said a word about a confidential source," Duggan said. "I walked out of that conversation believing that I had just been told that I have a city councilman who has taken a bribe from a dishonest tower. If anybody had suggested there was a confidential source involved, I wouldn’t have said a word."

The mayor's remarks came after the News reported, citing anonymous sources, that Duggan leaked the confidential FBI informant's name to officials in and out of city departments. In that article, a Duggan spokesman said the mayor had not known the person in question was working with the FBI in its investigation. The mayor was not quoted.

The News report said Duggan also had shared the name with people who aren't city employees. The article did not identify them. Duggan would not disclose whether he shared the informant's name with people outside of the city workforce.

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More:Ex-Detroit City Councilman Andre Spivey sentenced to 2 years in prison in bribery case

More:Ex-Detroit Councilman Spivey says he cooperated with FBI, bought 4 sports jackets for wire

Spivey was sentenced for accepting $35,900 in exchange for his influence on a vehicle towing ordinance that was before the City Council. In a January sentencing memorandum, government officials said that Spivey told a Detroit "public official" the identity of the informant. The document does not identify the official but a source familiar with the matter told the Free Press that Duggan is the public official.

"The public official subsequently informed other individuals in city government of the identity of the FBI confidential source, who then passed the information on to a target of the government’s investigation," according to the memo. 

However, Spivey's attorney, Elliott Hall, denied any claims that the former councilman disclosed the name of an informant to the mayor.

"My client does not recall giving the name of an informant to the mayor, but he did have a long discussion with him about the charges that he was facing, and that he was not going to run for office anymore," Hall told the Free Press. "If the mayor got the informant's name, he didn’t get it from my guy."

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FBI spokeswoman Mara Schneider deferred comments to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Spokeswoman Gina Balaya declined comment.

The FBI public corruption investigation also involves ex-Councilwoman Janeé Ayers and current Councilman Scott Benson. Days after federal agents searched their homes in August 2021, Duggan announced that he would fix the city's towing practices.

A month later when Spivey resigned from City Council, the mayor announced that he and Detroit Police Chief James White would devise a more transparent towing process. The roots of Detroit's towing corruption problem go back to 2011 when officials set up a lax permit rotation system on a no-bid basis, Duggan said.

"Towers in this city got permits without bidding. These permits are extremely lucrative," Duggan said. "For years, dishonest towers have found ways to break the rules to get tows much more frequently."

The Northern Hook investigation has led to six charges thus far. The towing industry has been connected to at least one other public corruption investigation in the area.

In 2018, Gasper Fiore was sentenced to 21 months for paying $7,000 in cash bribes to a Macomb County official for help with a towing contract.

More:Ex-Detroit deputy police chief Celia Washington cuts deal in Gasper Fiore towing scandal

Though Fiore was convicted of bribing just one politician, prosecutors argued in court that he bribed many people over the years, including ex-Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick, former Detroit Deputy Chief Celia Washington, other law enforcement officers and former Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers. 

Free Press staff writer Tresa Baldas contributed to this report. Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com

Dana Afana is the Detroit city hall reporter for the Free Press. Contact Dana: dafana@freepress.com or 313-635-3491. Follow her on Twitter: @DanaAfana.