Lee Chatfield

On July 15, 2018, Chatfield attempted to bring a loaded, unregistered handgun onto a commercial flight at Pellston Regional Airport.[4] He was fined $250 for failure to register his handgun, which he had purchased in December 2015.[5] He also paid a $1,960 fine from the Transportation Security Administration.[6] Chatfield had previously introduced a bill in the Michigan House of Representatives to make handgun registration voluntary.[7]

Lee Chatfield meets with residents during monthly office hours

On October 10, 2020, in a series of tweets directed at Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Chatfield questioned why members of the state legislature were not informed of the kidnapping and assassination plot against the governor, saying that members of the legislature and others on the State Capitol grounds may have also been at risk from violent actions. Zack Pohl, communications director for Whitmer, countered that Chatfield's father had organized a rally against the governor on the same day that the plot was revealed.[8] Similar rallies against the governor's COVID-19 public health actions had included two of the accused conspirators involved in the kidnapping plot, as confirmed by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel via photographic evidence from a rally on April 30.[9] It was later revealed in federal court documents that the plot included "Plans B and C" which involved 200 combatants seizing control of the state Capitol and burning it down while lawmakers were locked inside, “leaving no survivors."

The New York Times reported that Chatfield, along with state senator Mike Shirkey, agreed to meet with President Donald Trump on November 20, 2020, against a backdrop of attempts by Trump and his campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.[10] Paul Mitchell, the US Representative for Michigan's 10th congressional district, speculated that the purpose of the meeting may have been to discuss the appointment of pro-Trump electors to the U.S. Electoral College.[11] However, Chatfield later issued a statement refusing to interfere in the results of the state election.[12]