State investigators last summer wondered if a high-ranking aide to a Detroit-area congressman had taken a bribe to sabotage the petitions that kept the lawmaker off the 2012 ballot.
The suspicions were disclosed Thursday in a transcript of an interview between the attorney general's office and Don Yowchuang, who was deputy district director for then-U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter.
Yowchuang denied any bribery. He told investigators, "It would take a hell of a lot more money than $20,000 to do that."
Yowchuang and another McCotter aide, Paul Seewald, are charged with conspiracy and other crimes related to improper petitions signatures submitted to get McCotter on the ballot.
McCotter is not charged with a crime. The Livonia Republican quit Congress in July, weeks after he didn't qualify for the GOP primary.
