Michigan Attorney General Closed FGM Licensing Investigations Months Before Federal Case Ended, Records Show
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Assistant Attorney General Bridget K. Smith authored closure memos for both physicians. Both memos are redacted in full. No agency has explained why the investigations were closed.

AUSTIN, Texas - Californer -- Investigative journalist Brendon Marotta has found that Michigan's attorney general recommended closing the state's medical licensing investigations into two physicians charged with performing female genital mutilation (FGM) on children — months before the federal case against them was dismissed.

United States v. Nagarwala was America's first federal FGM prosecution. Federal prosecutors alleged that Dr. Jumana Nagarwala performed FGM on young girls at a Livonia clinic owned by Dr. Fakhruddin Attar. Marotta's reporting, published on Hegemon Media (hegemonmedia.com), documents that Assistant Attorney General Bridget K. Smith recommended closing both investigations on July 27, 2018, sending "Request to Close File" memos for each physician to Cheryl Wykoff Pezon, then Director of the Bureau of Professional Licensing at Michigan's Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. The federal charges were not dismissed until November 20, 2018.

LARA closed the Nagarwala investigation on September 25, 2018 — two months before the federal dismissal. LARA received the Attar closure memo on August 7, 2018. Both memos are completely redacted. Neither LARA nor the Attorney General's office has said why.

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Michigan's Board of Medicine had unanimously authorized both investigations in April 2017. Board reviewer Dr. Peter Graham recommended suspending Attar's license. Dr. James Sondheimer, a professor of medicine at Wayne State University, wrote: "Res ipsa loquitur." The facts speak for themselves. No disciplinary action followed.

Both physicians still hold active, unrestricted Michigan medical licenses with no record of discipline.

The full reports are available at:
About This Investigation

Brendon Marotta's ongoing investigation into Michigan's handling of physician licensing following United States v. Nagarwala — America's first federal FGM prosecution — is published on Hegemon Media (hegemonmedia.com). The investigation is based on public records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests to Michigan state agencies. Both physicians charged in the federal case, Dr. Jumana Nagarwala (License No. 4301071795) and Dr. Fakhruddin Attar (License No. 4301067384), hold active, unrestricted Michigan medical licenses with no public record of discipline.

Source: Hegemon Media
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