One can remember sitting in the massive office on the first floor of the Capitol reserved for whomever was speaker of the state House.

On several occasions, the former occupant of that office would pull out a fairly large whiteboard on which the then-speaker revealed his diagram mapping out his strategy for moving some legislation he wanted.

Other speakers may have done that stuff in their heads, but former Republican speaker Lee Chatfield was more than a cut above them as he meticulously explained his every calculated maneuver like some field marshal ready to go into battle.

Frankly, it was quite impressive.

Attorney General Dana Nessel has now charged Chatfield with 13 criminal counts, accusing him of redirecting legal contributions into a secret political fund that was supposed to be used to advance issues but that Nessel contends the speaker instead used to line his own pockets.

One now wonders, did Chatfield use the same whiteboard to map out an elaborate “scheme” to do so?

We’re about to find out.

Chatfield’s attorney boldly pledges to “fight this every step of the way.”

In a town where everyone makes it his or her business to know what the other guy is doing, pretty much everybody knew that Chatfield had a political future. When the speculators talked about who would run for governor, Chatfield’s name would routinely pop up. He would smile and brush it aside while at the same time never taking himself off the list.

What Nessel is telling the courts is that she discovered what he was really up to, and none of it was legal.

She alleges: “Our investigation has uncovered evidence that Lee Chatfield used various different schemes to embezzle, steal, and convert both public and private money to fund a lavish lifestyle,” which would have been tough to do on his state salary.

Her office argues he traveled all over, including Las Vegas, Orlando to visit the Mouse House, the Bahamas, “swanky” hotels, and he shared his largess with everyone around him, including allegedly paying off $132,000 in credit card debt with those obfuscated funds.

All of that comes at an auspicious time when the Legislature is knee-deep in debating ethics reforms demanded by voters in 2022.

Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson want to force politicians to disclose who kicks into their 501(c) accounts for which contributors are currently never disclosed.

Nessel indicates names will come out as a result of the prosecution of Chatfield, but, right now, that is the only way to find out who is coughing up big bucks and what, if anything, they are getting in return.

Can you say quid pro quo?

It is one thing to allegedly swipe money from those funds for personal use, but it’s a whole new, serious ballgame if you can link taking the funds from special interest groups to “buy” legislation they want or want to deep-six.

Asked about that the other day, the attorney general offered: “I don’t have an answer to your question,” while noting that the overall investigation is not over, yet.

So, are there more Lee Chatfield allegations out there?

We’re about to find that out, too.