Soviet Style Trial in Michigan for Criticizing a Politician – A Horrifying True Story

There is an ongoing case in Michigan that should terrify everyone. Marc Aisen was arrested near his home in December of 2023, extradited to Michigan, and has been held pretrial for over two and a half years.

Most Americans don’t believe the system can be weaponized against ordinary citizens. Judges and prosecutors are given the presumption of innocence and good faith, while criminal defendants are given the presumption of guilt because, “if the government went after them, they must have done something wrong.”

The case of The People of Michigan v. Marc Aisen demonstrates just how far the system can crush a person with the process.

Marc Aisen was gainfully employed and lived independently in Massachusetts. In his spare time, he did what countless Americans have done for generations: he wrote messages to politicians, nonprofit boards, and charity officials, on behalf of himself and others, calling them out for what he sincerely believed was complicity in crimes, immorality, and threats to public safety. He volunteered with various organizations within his religious community and the parents’ rights movement to advocate for policies.

On July 26, 2023, from his apartment in Massachusetts, Aisen sent an email to Bloomfield Township, Michigan, Treasurer Michael Schostak. The subject line was: “Michael Schostak Covered Up Child Sexual Exploitation in Jewish Nonprofit.”  The email was not posted on social media. It was sent directly to 56 email addresses, including 23 official local government emails, 14 officials from community boards and homeowners associations, and 19 private individuals. Here is the full text of that July 26 email:

Michael Schostak’s pedophile buddies are recommending child sex “change” experiments to kids and their parents, bespoking their tiny bodies with genital mutilation to make them more sexually appealing to the gay predators they are introducing them to. Michael Schostak is personally complicit in this evil scheme through his role at the “Secure Communities Network”. He doesn’t deny it. They advertise it on the JewishBoston.com website. “Jewish?” No. Faggotry is against the Jewish religion and this is precisely why.

Schostak received the email and forwarded it to Bloomfield Township Police Chief James Gallagher with the message: “Another email this morning. What are my options here?”

The “option” Schostak chose should alarm every American. On official township letterhead, using his government email address and cc’ing the police chief and a sergeant, Schostak sent Aisen this letter:

Mr. Aisen,

This letter serves as formal notice to cease and desist from any communication to me, my family, my colleagues, constituents or other associates. Your email messages are vile, contain hateful language, and are completely detached from any basis in fact. To be clear, I unequivocally deny your allegations as untrue and defamatory. You are hereby on notice to cease all communications to and about me. I am also demanding that you immediately provide a retraction of your defamatory comments to those individuals to whom your defamatory falsehoods were sent. Be advised – I am prepared to take legal action, both criminal and civil, should you fail to heed this warning.

MICHAEL E. SCHOSTAK

Treasurer
Bloomfield Township, MI

Notice what is not in that letter: any mention of actual threats of violence. Schostak’s objection was to the content of the criticism itself—language he called “vile” and “hateful,” and allegations he called “defamatory.”

Aisen responded the way any American exercising his constitutional rights would: he forwarded Schostak’s threatening email to even more public officials, Jewish organizations, rabbis, and media personalities. He reiterated his detailed allegations against Schostak, challenged him to refute them, and pointed out the obvious abuse of office:

By copying the police chief and a sergeant of the Bloomfield township police department on his official Bloomfield Township board of trustees letterhead, there was an obvious implication that the department works for him personally as private henchmen. It’s an abuse of process and a violation of his oath of office… Michael Schostak is threatening me with arrest. Criticizing politicians in public discourse is a civil right, not a crime…

There were no threats—just strong criticism of a public official using the powers of his office to silence dissent.

What happened next is straight out of a Soviet playbook. In December 2023—three months after Aisen’s last email—Aisen was arrested in Massachusetts, extradited to Michigan, and locked up in Oakland County Jail.

Local news reported the arrest with headlines like “Massachusetts man arrested for allegedly harassing Bloomfield Township Treasurer,” falsely claiming an “onslaught of emails filled with threats and accusations.” They repeated Schostak’s patently false claims that Aisen had threatened his family – something he was never charged with.

Aisen has now been held in the Oakland County Jail pre-trial for over two and a half years. He lost his job, was evicted from his apartment, and lost every worldly possession he owned. New counsel (myself, working with the Jewish Community Advocacy Council and David Peters of the Pacific Justice Institute) only entered the case recently, yet the judge is pushing forward with trial anyway—scheduled to begin Monday—despite the defense not having adequate time to prepare.

The charges themselves are terrifying:

MCL 750.411s, Unlawful Posting of a Message. For this felony charge, you can be imprisoned for up to 2 years for posting a message online that “could cause” just two “unconsented contacts” with a “victim” that makes the “victim” feel “terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested.” In other words, a public official simply claiming he felt “frightened” by criticism was enough to have a man arrested hundreds of miles away, extradited, and imprisoned indefinitely pretrial.

Marc Aisen’s case shows the horrifying breadth of this patently unconstitutional law. Under this law, a random X user in Oklahoma who tags Governor Gretchen Whitmer in a text that makes her feel frightened can be arrested at their home and dragged to Michigan to face felony charges. Think that can’t happen? That is exactly what happened to Marc Aisen for sending a critical email to a local city council member.

The second charge may be even more offensive to the constitution. MCL 752.796/752.797, Using a Computer to Commit a Crime. This law adds an additional 4-year felony enhancer. Here’s the kicker: it can be applied even if the defendant beats the underlying criminal charge. Meaning, even if the jury finds Marc Aisen not guilty of unlawfully posting a message, the jury can still convict him for “using a computer” even though he didn’t “commit a crime.” The judge can then sentence him to up to four years in prison. It sounds absurd. He can be sentenced to four years for using a computer – even without committing a crime. That is the actual law in Michigan.

Aside from the unconstitutional nature of the crimes, the process was used to punish Aisen. Even if Aisen ultimately beats the charges, he has already served a lengthy sentence.

Aisen’s public defenders, the prosecutors, and the judge all appear to have overlooked or ignored Michigan’s own 180-day rule on pretrial detention. The law was passed to prevent what happened to Marc Aisen. But a law meant to protect people from the system is meaningless because it requires the very same system to enforce it.

Immediately upon entering the case yesterday, we filed an emergency motion on his behalf demanding his immediate release and dismissal of charges with prejudice.

This case is so egregious that it is hard to believe it is actually happening in the United States of America and not the former Soviet Union. But it is. What I have set forth is just the tip of the iceberg of the constitutional violations in this case. The full story could fill a book, and one day it will.

This case is bigger than Marc Aisen. It is a warning to every American. Tyrannical governments always start with the vulnerable—those they think no one will defend. Vague statutes are being weaponized to criminalize political speech and criticism of public officials. If they can do this to a man who simply emailed a politician strong criticism from hundreds of miles away, they can do it to anyone.

The People of Michigan v. Marc Aisen should be required reading. If we don’t reform our broken justice system, this type of weaponisation will only escalate. I will continue to report on this case as it unfolds in the Oakland County Courthouse.

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