{"id":176675,"date":"2020-04-19T01:52:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T06:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/04\/19\/this-is-completely-unsurprising\/"},"modified":"2020-04-19T01:52:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T06:52:00","slug":"this-is-completely-unsurprising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/04\/19\/this-is-completely-unsurprising\/","title":{"rendered":"This is Completely Unsurprising"},"content":{"rendered":"

It turns out that former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder knew about the dangerous toxicity of the City of Flint’s new water supply months before he admitted it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In fact, he knew before there were any adverse health consequences, and he knew tht there WOULD be adverse health consequences, which makes him a murderer.<\/p>\n

Here is hoping that he goes to jail for a very long time:<\/p>\n

During the inauguration of his successor, outgoing Michigan Governor Rick Snyder needed a favor.<\/span>

<\/span>At the January 2019 event, Snyder approached Karen Weaver, who was then the mayor of Flint, a city of nearly 100,000 people that was still reeling from financial decay and a toxic-water crisis. He asked whether she could meet with Congressman Elijah Cummings. <\/span>

<\/span>\u201cYou have a lot of influence with him,\u201d Weaver remembered a worried Snyder saying to her about Cummings. At the time, Cummings was the incoming chairman of the powerful U.S. House Oversight Committee. <\/span>

<\/span>Throughout the water crisis, Cummings led<\/a> the charge as Congress demanded Snyder and his administration provide more information about what he knew about the poisonous water that ravaged the impoverished majority-minority Rust Belt city after it switched water sources to the corrosive Flint River in 2014, and when he knew it. More specifically, Cummings pushed for more information on when Snyder first learned of the lethal Legionella pneumophila bacterial outbreak in Flint. Snyder testified to Congress<\/a> that he first became aware of Legionella in January 2016 and held a press conference the next day. Flint residents didn\u2019t believe the governor; their doubt intensified after Harvey Hollins, the director of the state\u2019s Urban and Metropolitan Initiatives office, contradicted the governor, testifying<\/a> to Congress that he informed Snyder about Flint\u2019s Legionella outbreak in December 2015.<\/span>

<\/span>Back at the inauguration, Weaver said, Snyder asked her to get Cummings to \u201cback off\u201d from investigating him<\/a>, emphasizing that he wanted to move on with his life as a private citizen. He said \u201cit would go a long way\u201d if the request to the congressman came from her, Weaver recalled to VICE. Weaver\u2019s former spokesperson, Candice Mushatt, as well as two other sources, confirmed that she had described the governor\u2019s request to them after it occurred. (Snyder did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story). <\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026 <\/span>

<\/span>After a VICE investigation spanning a year and a half across the state of Michigan, overwhelming evidence indicates Snyder had good reason to worry. <\/span>

<\/span>Hundreds of confidential pages of documents obtained by VICE, along with emails and interviews, reveal a coordinated, five-year cover-up overseen by Snyder and his top officials to prevent news of Flint\u2019s deadly water from going public\u2014while there was still time to save lives\u2014and then limit the damage after the crisis made global headlines.<\/span>

<\/span>All told, the waterborne bacterial disease may have killed<\/a> at least 115 people in 2014 and 2015, and potentially more whose pneumonia wasn\u2019t officially considered Legionnaires\u2019 disease, the illness caused by Legionella. In addition to the outbreak, Flint’s water supply was contaminated with lead and other heavy metals, harmful bacteria, carcinogens, and other toxic components. This wreaked havoc on Flint residents, leaving them with a laundry list of illnesses, including kidney and liver problems, severe bone and muscle pain, gastrointestinal problems, loss of teeth, autoimmune diseases, neurological deficiencies, miscarriages, Parkinson\u2019s disease, severe fatigue, seizures, and volatile mood disorders. <\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026 <\/span>

<\/span>VICE has learned that prosecutors leading the criminal investigation secretly subpoenaed key members of Snyder\u2019s inner circle, including chief of staff Dennis Muchmore, Snyder’s \u201cfixer” and top adviser Rich Baird, and state treasurer Andy Dillon, as they built a case against the governor. Documents reveal the governor\u2019s chief legal counsel, Beth Clement, knew Snyder\u2019s top officials were subpoenaed by prosecutors, suggesting Snyder knew as well (a spokesperson for Clement, now a judge, said she couldn\u2019t comment on a case pending in any court). The aggressive investigation into Snyder may explain why the governor\u2019s office\u2019s legal fees, paid for by state taxpayers, came to at least $8.5 million<\/a> in the years after the water crisis made national headlines.<\/span>

<\/span>Snyder and his administration were investigated by a team led by special prosecutor Todd Flood from 2016 to 2019. The team concluded that the administration had \u201ccommitted conspiracies of ongoing crimes, like an organized crime unit,\u201d a source with knowledge of the probe told VICE. <\/span>

<\/span>But before a case against Snyder could develop, the state\u2019s newly appointed attorney general, Dana Nessel, fired top prosecutors and investigators pursuing the case. <\/span>

<\/span>Investigative subpoena documents obtained by VICE, along with details from sources with knowledge of the Flint water criminal prosecution, reveal that:<\/span><\/p>\n