With only 42 days until the November 2026 election, Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf is making it crystal clear for Michigan’s corrupt Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, that he is not playing games with her anymore.
MI SOS Jocelyn Benson and Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf
In his first of a series of videotaped explanations about his ongoing investigation into a Secretary of State employee’s whistleblower claim, Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf explains how the whistleblower — “now a protected confidential informant” — brought his office evidence that “non-citizens were automatically added to Michigan’s voter roll when they changed an address at an SOS branch,” and that his office sent that evidence to the federal government. An SOS manager, Leaf says, admitted knowing about the automatic placements and told the employee not to worry: city clerks would pull the non-citizens off. Leaf calls that a lie. Municipal and county clerks, he says, cannot see citizenship on the Qualified Voter File. “They do not have the data to do so,” he said. Sheriff Leaf says the criminal investigation is ongoing, his office is working with the Department of Justice and Homeland Security, and those agencies have already interviewed witnesses. He calls the case “extremely serious.”
“My office has continued its investigation and is cooperating with the federal government,” Leaf said, adding, “The federal government — the United States Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security — have spoken and interviewed witnesses.”
Watch:
— Sheriff Dar Leaf (@SheriffLeaf) September 21, 2026
In his second video, Sheriff Dar Leaf says Michigan Department of State Chief Legal Director Khyla D. Craine wrote him that branch staff are not authorized to give law enforcement information on a verbal request, accused him of contacting Elections Director Jonathan Brater outside official channels, and accused him of harassing SOS staff. Leaf posted her letter on his X account.
Sheriff Leaf explained to Benson’s chief legal counsel that he does not need her permission to interview witnesses in a criminal investigation that includes SOS management and the automatic placement of non-citizens on the voter roll — and that going through her “chain of command” is how obstruction happens. The sheriff says he is referring Craine to the federal government for “obstruction of justice, witness intimidation, and related charges.”
Sheriff Dar Leaf and Jocelyn Benson’s Chief Legal Director Khyla Craine
“Ms. Craine, your law license does not give you permission to violate the law or obstruct criminal investigations. The non-citizen investigation is a federal investigation. Michigan just held a primary election for federal offices, and in November of 2026 a general election will be held. You may not interfere with any law enforcement investigation,” Sheriff Leaf warned.
Watch:
— Sheriff Dar Leaf (@SheriffLeaf) September 21, 2026
In his next video, Sheriff Dar Leaf hits Jocelyn Benson’s Director of Elections, the same incompetent election official who was behind ensuring the Citizens Only Voting petition with over 700K signatures from citizens across the state was rejected in the 11th hour by the Board of Canvassers after he and his crack staff of “signature experts” determined that the petition was 3 signatures short of being qualified after their “random sampling” turned up signatures that they deemed to be mismatches with the QVF.
Director of BOE MI Jonathan Brater
Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf says the purge started as soon as he went public with the whistleblower’s claim. In the clip he calls “part two,” Leaf says that immediately after his press release about a Secretary of State whistleblower, Michigan Elections Director “Jonathan Brater and staff working under him began pulling people off the Qualified Voter File and told municipal clerks to delete the local master cards.” He explains, “Those cards,” Leaf says, “are the clerk’s proof that a person was on the roll.” He cites MCL 168.514, which requires a canceled master card be kept for years, and calls Brater’s instruction unlawful. Leaf says “Brater has testified under oath that the state does not keep a permanent QVF record — so the master card is the evidence of who is being removed.” Leaf says, “Ordering those cards destroyed is destruction of evidence of illegal registrations.” He says “his investigation, like the federal investigation, is ongoing.”
Watch
— Sheriff Dar Leaf (@SheriffLeaf) September 21, 2026
“My investigation has been obstructed by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and her staff!”
The third and final video says his investigation — like the federal one — is ongoing and he is required to interview witnesses. He went to talk to a manager who, Leaf says, documented the automatic registration of non-citizens on the voter roll. The man gave him a scripted answer: the Secretary of State’s office would not let him speak. Leaf says asking for a full name and date of birth is standard in any case, including a murder investigation, and that he will document every witness and suspect the same way. He says that an employee and a district manager were told in advance not to cooperate. He recorded the interviews.
“I went to interview a critical witness — a manager who documented the non-citizen automatic registration on the voter roll. I was polite to this witness, and he gave me a scripted response that he was not permitted by the Secretary of State’s office to speak with me,” Sheriff Leaf explained.
Watch:
— Sheriff Dar Leaf (@SheriffLeaf) September 21, 2026
In his final video, Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf claims there is a cover-up that includes gagging witnesses and wiping poll books. In his latest video he says his office has evidence that Melissa Thomas and other managers are telling whistleblowers they may not report crimes to law enforcement — conduct he calls a crime — and that Thomas will be referred for a federal investigation. Leaf says that on September 16, 2026, a Court of Appeals judge told Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to notify all clerks that electronic poll book data must be preserved and issued an injunction barring deletion of that data in Washtenaw County. Municipal clerks, he says, report they never got that email. The Barry County Sheriff’s Office is now telling every clerk to keep electronic poll book data from all elections for 22 months, as required by federal law and MCL 168.811. Anyone with information, Leaf says, can contact his office and be treated as a confidential informant.
Watch:
— Sheriff Dar Leaf (@SheriffLeaf) September 21, 2026
Despite what she may believe, Michigan’s Democratic candidate for governor and current Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is not above the law. Sadly, Sheriff Dar Leaf may be the only law enforcement officer who’s courageous enough to hold her and her office accountable.
The post WHAT ARE THEY HIDING? Michigan Sheriff Refers Sec of State Jocelyn Benson’s Chief Attorney to Feds for Interfering In Criminal Investigation After Threatening Him For Interviewing Clerks [VIDEO] appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
