The legal power struggle continues over whether the Detroit City Council can move forward with hearings to remove Mayor Kilpatrick from office. Those for & against are set to appear in Wayne County Circuit Court today.

The question is whether or not the Detroit City Council still has the moral authority to conduct hearings to remove Mayor Kilpatrick from office as word of the FBI probe of the City Council is now public. Attorney Bill Goodman for Detroit’s City Council says yes, it does. "There has been a consistent majority on the City Council, five members, who from what everyone says and from what everyone can tell, are not under any cloud whatsoever, who are favoring moving ahead with the forfeiture proceeding."

Today’s hearing will determine just who the two sides in the fight over the forfeiture hearings are. An additional hearing will be scheduled to determine whether or not the Detroit’s City Council, under the City Charter, actually has the right to remove the mayor from office for anything other than a felony conviction or lack of qualifications.

The hearings were put in place when the council learned that the mayor settled last year’s whistleblower lawsuit for $8.4 million with a “secret deal” that concealed the existence of indecent text messages between Kwame Kilpatrick and his former Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty.

No question the legal battle is on and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has a legal defense fund that many people and area businesses have contributed to. Taking a look under the microscope the Detroit News found that three of more than 30 companies & individuals who’ve contributed to Mayor Kilpatrick's legal defense fund owe in excess of $820,000 in state and federal taxes.

The report shows that the tax delinquents include the company that owns the former Hotel Pontchartrain, now the Sheraton Detroit Riverside hotel, donated $3,000 despite owing $501,299 in taxes to the state. Brian Jeffries, president and chief executive of Detroit-based Ambassador Capital Management, donated $10,000 to the fund. The report shows that Jeffries and his wife owe the IRS $290,803 in federal income taxes from 2002-2005, according to filings with the Oakland County Register of Deeds office.

Jeffries, the hotel owners and others helped Kilpatrick raise $185,600 for his legal defense since the beginning of April. All but $20,000 of that money has been spent on the mayor's legal team, defending him against perjury and other charges he is facing.

Bruce Sucher, an attorney for the Shubh Hotel Detroit L.L.C., said facility renovations forced the company to delay paying some bills. He also stated that most of the state taxes have been and the hotel owners have no city contracts. The contribution to Kilpatrick's fund was made to thank him for his support of tourism.

Kwame Kilpatrick and his former Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty are accused of lying under oath during a whistle-blowers' trial when both denied having a romantic relationship in 2002 and 2003. Kilpatrick also is accused of lying under oath about his role in the firing of a top police official.