Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s private attorneys are withholding information from state lawyers investigating the lead water crisis in Flint, Mich., the attorney general told reporters Tuesday.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Republican, told reporters that the lawyers from his office are being restricted by Snyder’s taxpayer-funded private attorneys.
“The attorneys with the Department of Attorney General are handling themselves in an exceedingly exceptional fashion,” Schuette said, according to The Detroit News. “But it’s the governor’s private attorneys who were not providing sufficient information.”
Snyder’s office is paying $1.2 million to two private law firms for representation in the Flint water crisis.
It’s not the first time Snyder’s attorneys have been accused of withholding information. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, accused Snyder of telling his lawyers to keep some top officials from talking to the committee and withholding documents.
Schuette has appointed a special investigator to look into how the state government handled the water crisis in Flint. That special investigator complained publicly last week about government agencies not complying with requests for documents, the News reported.
Snyder told reporters that he disagreed with Schuette’s assertion and denied his attorneys were withholding documents.
“We’ve been working hard to cooperate fully,” Snyder said, according to The News. “Actually we’ve been working with the attorneys general that represent us on responses and such, so we’re going through that whole process.”
He added, “Look at the amount of documents we’ve produced. Literally we’ve produced hundreds of thousands of documents, and again it’s a huge product and we’re going to continue working to be cooperative.”
Flint switched its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River as a cost-saving measure at the behest, and approval, of state officials in April 2014. Since then, the more corrosive Flint River water ate away at lead pipes leading from city water mains to people’s homes, causing lead to leach into their drinking water.
A state investigation found the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality was ultimately responsible for the crisis. Two agency employees have been criminally charged in the case.
The EPA announced last week that the water is now safe to drink if it is filtered.
