New Report Reveals Michigan Ex-Governor Covered Up Flint’s Water Crisis

According to a report by Vice, an 18-month investigation into the Flint water crisis has revealed that former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and his office engaged in a five-year cover-up of the crisis.

The report claims that in January of 2019, Snyder approached Karen Weaver, who was then the mayor of Flint, during her inauguration to ask whether she could meet with Congressman Elijah Cummings on his behalf in an effort to get Cummings to “back off” from investigating him, noting that he wished to move forward with his life as a private citizen. Snyder said that his request “would go a long way” had it come directly from Weaver, since “You have a lot of influence with him,” Weaver recounted Snyder saying.

Cummings, who was the chairman of the U.S. House Oversight Committee at the time, led the initiative for information regarding when Snyder and his administration were first made aware of the Legionella pneumophila bacterial outbreak in Flint.

Unbeknownst to Snyder, Cummings and Weaver had already spoken about the matter privately after Democrats won control of the House in the 2018 midterm election. According to Weaver, Cummings was planning to order Snyder back to Congress for additional questioning and wanted Weaver to be present. However, Cummings’ death in October 2019 prevented further questioning from occurring.

Between 2014 and 2015, Legionella, the waterborne bacterial disease, reportedly claimed the lives of at least 115 people. Flint’s water supply was also contaminated with lead and other heavy metals, harmful bacteria, carcinogens, and other toxic components, which left many residents with severe medical issues such as kidney and liver problems, severe bone and muscle pain, gastrointestinal issues, loss of teeth, autoimmune diseases, neurological deficiencies, miscarriages, Parkinson’s disease, severe fatigue, seizures, and volatile mood disorders. The long-term effects of heavy-metal poisoning can take years to manifest. This means that many residents’ conditions will only worsen as the years pass on. Many residents are still heavily reliant on bottled water to avoid using the faucet water that comes through the pipes.

Snyder testified to Congress that he was first made aware of Legionella in January 2016 and held a press conference the following day. However, Harvey Hollins, the director of the state’s Urban and Metropolitan Initiatives office, contradicted Snyder’s account, testifying to Congress that he informed Snyder about Flint’s Legionella outbreak in December 2015, according to the VICE report.

The VICE investigation, which spanned a year and a half across the state of Michigan, yielded hundreds of confidential documents, emails, and interviews, that shed light on an organized, five-year cover-up overseen by Snyder and his top officials. The cover-up was in an effort to prevent the water crisis from going public and then minimize the damage once the crisis made headlines around the world.

Snyder and his administration were investigated by a team led by special prosecutor Todd Flood from 2016 to 2019. That investigation found that the administration had “committed conspiracies of ongoing crimes, like an organized crime unit,” a source close to the probe disclosed to VICE.

However, the case against Snyder was stalled when the state’s newly appointed attorney general, Dana Nessel, fired Flood and other investigators working on the case. In June, the state’s prosecution team dismissed all pending criminal charges against the eight remaining defendants and launched a new investigation based on concerns about the initial one.

As Flint enters into its sixth year of the water crisis, time is running out to get justice for the cover-up. The statute of limitations for filing new felony misconduct-in-office charges will run out next week unless the Republican-controlled state legislature intervenes immediately.