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Snyder Closes Flint Inquiry At Behest Of Criminal Investigators

MPRN

(MPRN-Lansing) Governor Rick Snyder is suspending his administration’s internal inquiry into the state’s handling of the Flint water crisis. That’s at the request of Attorney General Bill Schuette and other law enforcement officials who say it’s jeopardizing their criminal investigations. 

Schuette says criminal investigators have been running into instances where they were interviewing the same people as the administration’s investigators. In some cases, employees were compelled to cooperate or risk their jobs, and they were promised their statements would not be used to prosecute them.

“It became increasingly clear that we had to make sure that nothing, nothing would impede the criminal investigation, to make sure we provide justice to the families of Flint,”

Schuette said. Schuette and Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton sent a letter to the governor asking him to shut down the administration’s internal investigation. US Attorney Barbara McQuade also sent a letter to the state with the same request, and asking that the contents of a report on the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality remain out of the public eye.

“As you know, the United States Attorney’s Office is conducting a criminal investigation into whether any federal laws were violated in connection with the Flint drinking water matter,” she wrote. “The existence of this report poses a significant risk to our federal criminal investigation.”

Two DEQ employees and a Flint water supervisor have been charged with breaking Michigan laws. More charges against more people are expected.

Snyder Press Secretary Anna Heaton says the letters caught the administration by surprise. She said that no one had ever raised the issue, even though the internal inquiries have been common knowledge for some time.

“It definitely was not intentional, nor did we realize at all that could impede their investigations,” she said. “Once we heard that might be the case, we immediately asked both the auditor general and the inspector general to cease their investigations.”

The Auditor General reports to the Legislature. House Minority Leader Tim Greimel (D-Pontiac) was the first legislative leader to call on the Auditor General to stand down until the criminal investigation is wrapped up.

The governor did suspend an internal inquiry by the inspector general of the state Department of Health and Human Services into a fatal outbreak of Legionnaire’s Disease that could be related to the Flint water crisis.

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